title: Dental hospital admissions in the children of mothers with an alcohol-related diagnosis: a population-based, data-linkage study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship between maternal alcohol-use disorder and dental hospital admissions in children up to 5 years of age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mothers with an International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision/10th revision alcohol-related diagnosis, a proxy for alcohol-use disorder, were identified through the Western Australian data-linkage system. Exposed mothers were frequency-matched by maternal age, Aboriginal status, and child's birth year to randomly selected comparison mothers without an alcohol diagnosis. Linkage with the Midwives Notification System (1983-2002) identified all births of these mothers; "exposed" (non-Aboriginal, n = 11,171; Aboriginal, n = 8145) and comparison cohorts (non-Aboriginal, n = 32,508; Aboriginal, n = 16,719). Dental hospital admissions were identified through linkage with Hospital Morbidity Data (1983-2007) (3.2% exposed; 3.0% comparison) and cases of fetal alcohol syndrome (n = 84) through linkage with the Western Australian Register of Developmental Anomalies. ORs and 95% CIs for having a dental admission (International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision: 520-529; International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision: K0-K14.9) were generated by the use of generalized estimating equations, which we adjusted for potential confounding factors (aOR).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children of mothers with an alcohol-related diagnosis had increased adjusted odds of gingivitis and periodontal diseases (aOR 1.67; 95% CI 1.12-2.51) and "other" diseases of the lip and oral mucosa (aOR 1.56; 95% CI 1.21-2.01). Diseases of the salivary glands were increased only in Aboriginal children of mothers with an alcohol-related diagnosis (aOR 2.65; 95% CI 1.09-6.44). Children diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome had increased ORs of any dental admission (aOR 2.58; 95% CI 1.30-5.11).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Maternal alcohol-use disorder was associated with dental admissions related to disorders of the soft tissues, but questions remain regarding perinatal influences on dental admissions and disease.
authors.affiliation: Center for Population Health Research, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. colleen.oleary@curtin.edu.au
authors.forename: Colleen M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: O'Leary
authors.forename: Linda M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Slack-Smith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003625:Data Collection; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003740:Dental Clinics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009035:Mothers; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014904:Western Australia; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: FAS; Fetal alcohol syndrome; ICD-10; ICD-9; International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision; International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision