Social Support From Different Sources and Caries Experience in Adolescents

Objective: To assess the relative roles of social support from family, friends and significant others on dental caries experience in adolescents. Methods: Phase III of Research with East London Adolescents Community Health Survey (RELACHS) collected data in a representative sample of 15-16-year-old adolescents in 2005. RELACHS is a longitudinal secondary school-based epidemiological study that followed up pupils aged 11-12 years in 2001 and 13-14 years in 2003. Adolescents provided information on their demographic characteristics (sex, age and ethnicity), socioeconomic position (parental employment and eligibility for free school meals), social support (using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, MSPSS) and health behaviours (dental visits, toothbrushing frequency and sugar consumption). The 12-item MSPSS assessed adolescents' perception of social support adequacy from three specific sources: family, friends and significant others, providing three subscales. Participants were also clinically examined to determine their number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT), following the 1997 WHO criteria. Negative binomial regression models were fitted to test the independent and mutually adjusted associations of each source of social support with DMFT. Results: 975 adolescents participated in the study (67.2% response rate), of whom 886 had complete data on the variables selected for this analysis (56.8% females and 74.5% non-White). Mean DMFT was 1.35 (SD: 1.50). Higher levels of support from family (Rate Ratio: 0.85; 95%CI: 0.75-0.96), friends (RR: 0.85; 95%CI: 0.73-0.99) and significant others (RR: 0.79; 95%CI: 0.67-0.92) were related to lower DMFT after adjustment for demographic characteristics, socioeconomic position and health behaviours. However, only support from significant others remained significantly related to DMFT after mutual adjustment for other sources of social support (RR: 0.76; 95%CI: 0.60-0.95). Conclusion: High social support was independently related to lower caries experience. Support from significant others was more relevant for these adolescents than support from their family and peers.