Assessing associations between caries prevalence and body mass index and nutritional data among children aged 6-12 years

The purpose of this cross sectional study was to examine associations between dental caries and body mass index (BMI) and diet in 6 to 12 year old children. One hundred subjects were included in the study. The number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT), height and weight were examined in each subject. The primary caregiver for each subject completed a diet questionnaire. The data were analyzed using a chi-square test, a Fisher’s exact test, a Kruskal-Wallis test and an independent sample t-test. Associations between variables and caries were examined using a Spearman’s correlation with significance set at a p-value <0.05. The mean age, BMI and number of DMFT were 9.21±2.1 years old, 18.52±4.8 kg/m², and 4.03±4.36, respectively. Sixty-seven percent of subjects had a normal BMI, 24% were overweight, and 9% were underweight. Twenty-three percent of subjects had no dental caries (DMFT score=0), 23% had moderate to many caries (DMFT scores = 3.1-6.9), 22% had very many caries (DMFT scores≥ 7), 17% had few caries (DMFT scores<3). Overweight and underweight children did not have a significantly different number of DMFT than normal weight children. The number of DMFT did not correlate with reported sugar (R=-0.128) or carbohydrate (R=-0.174) consumption. There was no significant association between BMI and dental caries and amount of sugar and carbohydrate consumption and dental caries.