Caries And Quality Of Life In An Amazonian Urban Slum

Objectives: To assess the dental health status and evaluate the impact of oral health on quality of life among the pediatric population of the Claverito Community, an informal migrant floating community living on the Amazon River on the outskirts of Iquitos, Peru.
Methods: Dental health status information was recorded for 67 children using the World Health Organization (WHO) Oral Assessment form. Oral health quality of life information was recorded for 28 children using the validated Parental-Caregivers Perception Questionnaire (P-CPQ). P-CPQ survey scores range from 0 to 124, with a higher score indicating more frequent impact of negative oral health status on quality of life. Dental health status and P-CPQ scores were compared between children based on gender, caregiver characteristics, and SiC status using the Mann-Whitney U test, and correlations between dental health status and P-CPQ scores were described using Spearman’s correlation coefficients.
Results: The prevalence of untreated dental caries among the pediatric population of the Claverito Community was 97%. Each child, on average, had six teeth with untreated decay and seven teeth with either untreated decay or dental restorations (DFT). The Significant Caries (SiC) Index, which measures the average DFT for the one-third of the population with the highest caries scores, was 11. The average total P-CPQ score was 38.5. Median DFT was significantly greater among children whose primary caregiver was not their mother (p=0.03). The Overall Well-being and Oral Symptoms P-CPQ scores were significantly higher among children whose caregivers were over age 30 (p<0.01).
Conclusions: Children of the Claverito Community experience rates of decay at roughly twice the domestic level. Similarly, P-CPQ scores from our study population were more than double those of children from private and public schools in Lima. These findings indicate the burden of dental disease is significantly greater among migrant communities with negative effects on children’s quality of life.