ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN DENTAL CARIES AND BMI AMONG 5-9 YEAR OLD BANGLADESHI CHILDREN

Abstract

Dental caries is the most common childhood disease worldwide. Findings from different studies provide inconsistency in association between dental caries and height, weight and BMI in young children. The aim of this study is to assess the associations between dental caries and Height, weight and BMI among 5 to 9 year old Bangladeshi children.

Methods: A cross sectional observational study was conducted in August to October 2015 among 5-9 year old children in Dhaka City of Bangladesh. The University College London and National Research Ethics committee approved the study and parental consent was obtained for each subject. Children were randomly recruited from those coming for dental treatment in Dhaka Dental College Hospital and from three nearby primary schools. Both clinical and non-clinical data were collected. Clinical data was collected from the children and non-clinical data was collected from both parents and children through questionnaires. Clinical dental data was collected through a dental examination, using standard WHO Oral Health Survey Basic Methods, 2013; by trained and calibrated dentists. Height and weight of the children were also measured and converted to Z-scores, namely weight-for-age (WAZ), height-for-age (HAZ) and BMI-for-age (BAZ) Z scores and these were outcome variables. A combined measure of decayed, missing and filled deciduous and permanent tooth (dmft+DMFT) was used as the main exposure for the final analysis. Data was analysed by using Stata version 13.0. First the analysis for bi variable association was conducted and finally multiple linear regression analysis was used in order to assess the associations of interest adjusted for possible confounding factors: age, sex, parental education, occupation and house hold family income.

Results: total sample size was 788 children. Among them 388 (49.2%) were boys and 400 (50.7%) were girls. The children were 5-9 year old and majority (86.8%) was within 6-8 years. The mean age was 7.12 years (95% CI 7.05- 7.19). The mean dmft+DMFT in the study population were 2.8 (95% CI 2.6-3.0). Children with a higher level of caries experience had statistically significant lower HAZ, WAZ and BAZ scores than those with lower caries and with no dental caries group. The result of multiple linear regressions showed that with each number increase of dental caries there were 0.1 Z score decrease in HAZ, WAZ and BAZ after adjusting for other factors (p<0.001). The result of this study provides evidence that dental caries was associated with lower height, weight and BMI of children in Bangladesh.

The study was funded by Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, UK.The study was part of the PhD project of the presenter and her PhD studentship was also funded by Commonwealth Scholarship.