Abstract
Title: Preschool children's dental health in a province of NE Greece
Objectives: The study aims to assess caries prevalence and incidence for preschool children to aid a local Public Health Centre (PHC) of North-Eastern Greece to identify high-risk groups of preschool children and quantify inequalities for interventions. Methods: Caries data was collected for 5- (N=112) and 6-year-olds (N=134) during routine oral examinations in 2006 who were re-examined in 2007 by the same dentist, according to WHO criteria. The statistical analysis examined the impact on caries prevalence and incidence of the factors: Age (5 and 6 year-olds), Gender, Residency (semi urban, rural- lowland, -highland), Ethnicity (natives, immigrants). Statistical significance was tested at a=0.05. Results: The dependent variables dmft-dmfs were analyzed using GENMOD (SAS v8.02) assuming Poisson distribution (models were corrected for over-dispersion by using the square root of Deviance/df) and Binomial models. All the models showed good fit. Factors Age and Ethnicity were statistically significant and Residency was marginally significant. Gender and all two-way interactions were dropped in all models after examination of their significance. Only Age affected presence (dmft>0) or absence (dmft=0) of dental caries. The following table summarises descriptive statistics.
|
Age |
dmft |
dmfs |
SiC Index |
% of children |
||||
|
mean |
sd |
mean |
sd |
mean |
sd |
dmft=0 |
dmft>3 |
|
|
5-year olds |
0,88 |
2,14 |
1,38 |
3,65 |
2,65 |
3,05 |
78% |
12% |
|
6-year olds |
1,68 |
2,98 |
3,13 |
6,17 |
4,70 |
3,57 |
56% |
18% |
The 2nd examination recorded considerable deterioration. Approximately 38% of 6 year-olds showed increased dmfs indices (Deltadmfs =1.4 sd 2.38), although none of the tested factors showed a statistically significant impact on this annual increment. Conclusion: Caries data for 5 and 6 year-olds worsened significantly during a year, indicating the need for a public health service -based strategy for preschool children to reduce oral health inequalities, especially for immigrants and those children living in highland rural areas.