Oral Health in early childhood of a Public Health Network in Santiago de Cali.

Objectives: To describe the oral health status and the impact of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) in children below 6 years old at the commune 20 in Cali.
Methods: Several approaches were performed and included 1)a descriptive transversal study in 114 children to determine the prevalence of dental caries, 2) a case-control study in 96 children in which their families received the FHS and 199 controls to determine if they presented differences in dental decay consultation 3) a Multilevel linear regression to describe the variables associated with dental caries
Results: The prevalence of incipient caries lesions and cavitated according ICDAS was 67.54 % (CI 58.8 % - 76.27 %) proportion of children without caries was 32.45%. In the case-control study, the group covered by the FHS strategy consulted more for dental decay - coefficient β = -0042 95% CI ( -0.06 to -0.001 ),also the consultation increases with age , β = 0.02 , 95% CI ( 0.0070 to 0.044 ),vulnerable and overcrowded families consulted more, respectively , β = 0.03 , 95% CI (0.01 to 0.14) and β = 0.081 , 95% CI (0.01 to 0.14). In the multilevel analysis, the age of the child, explain 9.4% of consultation by caries, while overcrowding and smoking of a relative accounted for 53 % of the variability found
Conclusions: Children of families covered by the FHS have 3 times more chance of being attended by dental caries that children from families outside the strategy and the variables associated with dental consultation were child's age, and family overcrowding. This information might be useful to guide the actions of the proposed alliance and monitor indicators over the time.