Parents’ Knowledge and Children’s Feeding Patterns in Relation to Caries Experiences

Abstract

This study aims to assess the association of parents' knowledge, children's feeding pattern, and other contributing factors with caries experience of a child. This was a cross-sectional study using a validated questionnaire of 145 children aged two to eight years old attending the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia. The questionnaires were given to the parents during their children's dental visit in paediatric clinic and primary care. Dental caries was traced from the patient's record in the Integrated Dental Records Management System (IDERMS) and clinical examination was done for those who did not have the dental record. Charting was recorded using dentition status and treatment need based on the 1997 World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Data were analysed using the independent t-test and one-way ANOVA to examine the association of dental caries with two and three or more categorical variables respectively using SPSS 23.0. The study participants were 74 (51%) boys and 71 (49%) girls. The mean dmft score of the participants was 3.31 (4.36). Caries experience was statistically significant with the reason for first dental visit (p < 0.001), the age of the children discontinues bottle-feeding (p < 0.001), habits of leaving bottle-feeding while sleeping (p = 0.011), children wake up for milk at night (p = 0.050) and knowledge of parents on the effect of leaving bottle while sleeping (p = 0.037). Children feeding patterns and parents' knowledge of the risk factors of dental caries were significantly associated with caries experience among children aged two to eight years old.