Obesity and Dental Caries among Preschool Children in Brazil

Abstract

Aim This study was aimed at verifying the relationship between childhood obesity and dental caries. Method A total of 2 651 preschool children were examined for this cross-sectional study in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil; 1 338 of them attended public schools and 1 313 private schools. The clinical data and anthropometric measurements were obtained in line with WHO criteria. Pearson chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests were used, with a 5 % margin of error. Results The prevalence of child obesity was 9 % (n=240). The highest prevalence was observed amongst children in private elementary schools (p<0.0001). The prevalence of dental caries was 19 % (n=504). The DMFT index was smaller in non-obese individuals (p=0.0267). The average value of dental caries, lost teeth and DMFT were significantly higher among children in public elementary schools than amongst those in private pre-schools (p<0.0001). Conclusion No relationship was found between dental caries and obesity. Suitable health policies should be adopted so as to minimise the high prevalence of dental caries among this population.

Body mass index and dental caries in children and adolescents: a systematic review of literature published 2004 to 2011

“…Caries prevalence ranged from 19.1% [19] to 91% [42] with higher prevalence in public schools (60.8% [43], 26.4% [44], 52.4% [45]) compared to private schools (11.9% [43], 11.4% [44], 9.6% [45]). Mean dmft/DMFT varied from .23 in private school children in Brazil [43] to 14 in children from remote areas of the rain forest of Suriname [46], with most studies reporting approximately 2.0.…”

“…Failure to distinguish between normal-weight and underweight children makes it difficult to know how well the association between caries and BMI was tested in underweight children or between normal-weight and overweight chidlren. Proportions of obese children reported in these studies ranged from 20 to 50% [8,15,20,25,44,48,52]. …”

“…Factors that were found to be associated with caries were ethnicity [8,47], low parental education achievement [8,19], poverty/lower socioeconomic level (below the federal poverty level [8,19,43]), higher SES level [50], female gender [48,53] not eating breakfast daily [8], eating fewer than five servings of fruit and vegetables daily [8], attending public school [20,42,44,50], school absenteeism [50], soft drink consumption [50,54], low health attitude [50], and reduced height [46]. …”

Assessment of quality of life, anxiety, socio‐economic factors and caries experience in Brazilian children with overweight and obesity

“…In the present study, no significant association was observed between overweight/obesity and caries experience, in agreement with the study of Granville‐Garcia et al . which involved 2651 children in Recife (north‐east region of Brazil). The authors did not find significant difference in DMFT index between children with and without obesity, although when considering the private schools, they observed that children with obesity showed higher rate of dental caries.…”

“…On the other hand, masticatory function is dependent on oral health and subjects with a high rate of tooth decay, gingivitis and/or premature tooth losses may alter their diet, avoiding foods that are more difficult to chew . However, there is no consensus in the literature about the existence of a correlation between overweight and caries experience, and the results found in Brazilian population and children from other countries have been rather variable .…”