Factors related to children’s caries: a structural equation modeling approach

Abstract

BackgroundDental caries among preschool children is highly prevalent in many less-developed countries.MethodsA model which explored the factors related to children’s dental caries was tested in this study using structural equation modeling. Caregivers of children aged 5 years were surveyed on their socioeconomic status, and their oral health knowledge, attitudes and practices. In addition, information on their children’s oral health practices, dental insurance and dental service utilization were collected. Examination of caries was conducted on all children who returned fully completed questionnaires.ResultsThe results showed that socioeconomic factors influenced children’s oral health practices through the impact of caregivers’ oral health knowledge and practices; that caregivers’ oral health knowledge affected children’s oral health practices through the influence of caregivers’ oral health attitudes and practices; and finally, that children’s oral health practices were linked directly to their caries.ConclusionThe findings have important applications for promoting policies aimed at advancing children’s oral health.

The relationship between children’s oral health-related behaviors and their caregiver’s social support

“…In this study, the caregiver’s social support was not significantly associated with a child’s frequency of sugary snack intake. The frequency of sugary snack intake by children was predominantly related to the caregiver’s frequency of sugary snack intake and other factors, which was also shown in our previous study [16, 22]. In addition, these findings revealed that a child’s sugary snack intake habits are influenced by his/her caregiver’s sugary snack intake habits.…”

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards Leptospirosis among Lakeshore Communities of Calamba and Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines

“…The Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) survey model offers a conceptual framework for analyzing human behavior and its effects on choices or interventions by characterizing knowledge, feelings, and actions [20]. The model considers the importance of an individual's knowledge and attitude in influencing behavior change [21,22]. It also recognizes the impact of external factors, such as socioeconomic and environmental influences, on individual behavior [23][24][25].…”

Factors Related to Dental Caries, Periodontal Disease, and Psychological effect of those diseases: A Structural Equation Modeling and Artificial Neural Network model comparative approach

“…ANN was able to detect the most important and least important predictors but SEM was not able to do that. SEM produced some valid cause and effect relationship [22] among the observed variables which will help us to understand the exact structure and mathematical relationship among them [Table No. 10].…”

“…Questionnaire A questionnaire study [10] was conducted on the study subjects. Factors included in questionnaire were: Socio-economic status of participant [ [11,12,22]. A model was accepted when all the criteria's were fulfilled;…”

“…The KAP [Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice] model has huge influence in this study. Although many factors associated to dental caries and periodontal disease have been recognized in many previous studies using multiple regression [4, 5] models and structural equation models [22], but still more advanced technique is required to establish the relation among the disease causing factors and diseases. The multiple regression models are not much successful to distinguish between correlation and causal associations present between the disease and factor.…”