The Effect of Infant Feeding Habits, Parents’ Education and the Area of Residence on Nursing Caries of Preschool Children in Mosul City.

Abstract

Aims:To evaluate the effectiveness of some nursing caries factors related to presentation such as gender variation, pattern of feeding habits, parent's education and area of residence through a random sample of preschool children in Mosul City. Materials and Methods: A sample of 271 children was selected from 2-5 year olds, attending the Pedodontic clinic of Dentistry College at Mosul University and some others private dental clinic in Mosul City. For each child, clinical exanimation was performed on dental chair. The examination was conducted with a visual and non tactile technique. The criterion used for nursing caries was the presence of caries on the labial or lingual surfaces (smooth surface) of at least two maxillary incisors with absence of caries in mandibular incisors. The questionnaire was designed to collect general information on each child: name, age, gender as well as questions including area of residence (rural or urban) and parental education levels. Dietary information sought included past and current infant feeding practices either; breast feeding, bottle feeding or mixed of both. Chi -square (X2) test was used to determine the gender differences for each group and between total samples of different groups. The differences were considered significant at p ≤ 0.05. Results: A total of 271 children with nursing caries, 146 (53.87%) males and 125 (46.13%) females of 2 -5 years old were included in this study. The higher number of children was from rural area than those from the urban area with significant difference (p≤ 0.05) between them. Concerning parents' education, nursing caries was significantly the higher amongst children of mothers and fathers with the lowest level of education. The lowest percentages of children were seen in the children of parents educated to beyond college level. The higher number of children was of breast feeding group followed by bottle feeding group and mixed feeding group with a significant difference (p≤ 0.05) between breast feeding and mixed feeding groups only. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) between different genders among all variables groups. Conclusions: The occurrence of nursing caries in preschool children appears to vary significantly with respect to the area of residence, parental education and feeding habits groups. The improvement of different familial factors may have an impact on the oral health of children.