Prevalence of obesity among preschool children and its relation with dental caries

Abstract

There is increasing interest in investigating the association between dental caries and childhood obesity, particularly among preschoolers where the evidence is limited. We aimed to measure the prevalence of obesity/overweight among preschool children aged 3 to 6 years, and to determine the relationship between obesity and dental caries in the primary dentition. A cross-sectional study was carried out in eight public and private preschools using a multi-stage stratified sample of 820 children. Waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI) measurements were obtained. Caries was assessed using the National Institute of Dental Research's decayed, missed or filled score (dmft). Based on BMI, 15% of children were obese and 10% were overweight. Based on WC, 13% of children were obese. The prevalence of obesity/overweight based on BMI was significantly higher among girls (p-value=0.014) and private preschools (p-value<0.001). Based on BMI, obese and overweight children had lower dmft scores than underweight and normal children (p-value<0.001). Based on WC, obese children had lower dmft scores than non-obese children (p-value<0.001). Obesity prevalence was high, particularly among girls and private preschool children. Caries activity was lower in overweight and obese children. Longitudinal studies are essential to investigate the association between caries and obesity in preschool children.

Association between Dental Caries and Obesity in Children and Young People: A Narrative Review

“…This review found no convincing evidence to demonstrate a specific association between obesity and dental caries in the primary dentition when compared to the permanent dentition. Despite the limited evidence, it appears that more studies tend to show that young children with dental caries in the primary dentition are underweight compared to children without caries, which is an inverse association [14, 18–20]. Obese older children and adolescents are more likely to have dental caries in their permanent teeth, which is a positive association [33–35].…”

“…Another explanation for the inverse association might be that children with untreated caries could experience pain and infection, thus preventing them from consuming adequate nutrition. In addition, other factors that contribute to overall wellbeing could be affected, including the ability to sleep, which in turn may lead to malnutrition and growth impairment [12, 18, 20, 25, 36]. The wider literature suggests that underweight children gained weight after receiving dental treatment [19, 50].…”

“…Many authors have suggested that both being underweight and having dental caries could be due to poverty and low socioeconomic status [15, 16, 18, 19, 25, 28, 37, 38]. Nonetheless, this association is not present in all populations, and there is great variation globally that can be partially attributed to cultural differences [52].…”

“…While some studies reported more dental caries in boys [19, 20], Quadri et al [12] found more dental caries in girls. By contrast, some studies concluded that there is no difference in dental caries between both genders [18, 25].…”

“…With regard to obesity, girls were more likely to be obese [18, 25, 26]. Thus, similar gender distribution is an important factor to consider avoiding misleading conclusions [35].…”