Related Risk Factors of Early Childhood Caries in Zhejiang Province, China During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

ObjectivesThis work aims to examining the latest early childhood caries situation in children aged 3 and 5 and its related risk factors in Zhejiang Province during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodThere are 3,537 children and their main caregivers participate in this study. We used chi square test or U-test to analyze whether there were differences in the prevalence of dental caries under different variables. The risk factors on ECC were determined by multivariate logistic analysis.ResultsThe ECC rate of children in this study was 57.51%. The mean decayed missing filled teeth (dmft) scores were 3.01. The result of multivariate logistic analysis showed higher ECC prevalence was found in children as age increasing, with lower district economic level, with high frequency of confectionary consumption, having oral medical treatment behavior and bad evaluation of children's oral health by parents.ConclusionIn general, the prevalence rate of ECC in this study was lower than five years ago, but still higher than those developed countries. And it was associated with age, district economic level, frequency of confectionary consumption, oral medical treatment behavior and evaluation of children's oral health by parents.

Prevalence of early childhood caries post covid-19 pandemic in Mumbai among children aged 3-5 years: A cross-sectional pilot study

“…While ECC in itself was a global malice, the patterns of its prevalence showed substantial alterations in the midst of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, just like many other diseases owing to the unique nature of the pandemic and the subsequently imposed preventive measures. 10 The total number of COVID-19 cases exponentially increased and outspread ever since the first reported case in early December 2019 and in order to limit the spread of the disease, numerous measures were implemented by Governments and health ministries across all the countries. 11 A nationwide lockdown was implemented in March 2020 in India.…”