IADR Abstract Archives
Community-based Caries Prevention Program in Pre-kindergarten Children in Rural Thailand
Objectives: This study evaluated the effectiveness of a caries prevention program in pre-kindergarten children carried out in a community setting.
Methods: Participants were children under 2 years of age in a rural subdistrict with high caries prevalence in Sakon Nakhon Province, Thailand. The program included brushing instructions for parents and monthly home visits by village health volunteers to monitor oral hygiene status and compliance in addition to regular services provided under the universal health coverage system. Dental caries and debris index was examined by two calibrated dentists in a field setting. This analysis included only the children who attended the examinations at baseline and 6 months after the beginning of the program. The results were compared to children in a nearby subdistrict without program implementation. Differences between subdistricts were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test for skewed data, and t-test for normally-distributed data. Categorical data were compared using chi-square.
Results: A total of 213 children completed 2 examinations, with 128 children being in the subdistrict with program implementation and 85 in the comparison group. Six months after project implementation, mean dft and dfs appeared lower in the subdistrict with program implementation (2.55 and 4.50, respectively) compared to the comparison group (4.00 and 9.13, respectively), although not statistically significant. Fifty-four percent of children in the subdistrict with program implementation had cavitated lesions versus 53 percent in the comparison group (p-value=0.89). The mean caries increment of children in the program and the comparison group was 0.95 (SD=3.08) and 2.27 (SD=7.06) surfaces, respectively (p-value=0.06). The children in the program had a significantly lower debris index on incisors than the controls (p-value=0.04).
Conclusions: The program was promising in terms of preventing caries and improving oral hygiene. Longer follow-up is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of this community-based program.
Methods: Participants were children under 2 years of age in a rural subdistrict with high caries prevalence in Sakon Nakhon Province, Thailand. The program included brushing instructions for parents and monthly home visits by village health volunteers to monitor oral hygiene status and compliance in addition to regular services provided under the universal health coverage system. Dental caries and debris index was examined by two calibrated dentists in a field setting. This analysis included only the children who attended the examinations at baseline and 6 months after the beginning of the program. The results were compared to children in a nearby subdistrict without program implementation. Differences between subdistricts were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test for skewed data, and t-test for normally-distributed data. Categorical data were compared using chi-square.
Results: A total of 213 children completed 2 examinations, with 128 children being in the subdistrict with program implementation and 85 in the comparison group. Six months after project implementation, mean dft and dfs appeared lower in the subdistrict with program implementation (2.55 and 4.50, respectively) compared to the comparison group (4.00 and 9.13, respectively), although not statistically significant. Fifty-four percent of children in the subdistrict with program implementation had cavitated lesions versus 53 percent in the comparison group (p-value=0.89). The mean caries increment of children in the program and the comparison group was 0.95 (SD=3.08) and 2.27 (SD=7.06) surfaces, respectively (p-value=0.06). The children in the program had a significantly lower debris index on incisors than the controls (p-value=0.04).
Conclusions: The program was promising in terms of preventing caries and improving oral hygiene. Longer follow-up is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of this community-based program.