Relationship between parental locus of control and caries experience in preschool children – cross-sectional survey

Background: Due to high prevalence and serious impacts, childhood caries represents a public health issue. Behavioural risk factors such as locus of health control have been implicated in the development of the disease; however their association with childhood caries has not been thoroughly studied. The aim of this cross-sectional survey was to assess the relationship between parental locus of health control and caries experience and untreated caries of their preschool children in a representative sample in Czech Republic, adjusting for relevant sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: A representative sample of 285 preschool children and their parents was recruited. Study data included children's dental status recorded in nurseries and parental questionnaires with 13 attitudinal items regarding locus of control (LoC) in caries prevention. The association between parental locus of control and children's caries experience and level of untreated caries was analysed using logistic regression, adjusting for the effect of key sociodemographic variables. Results: There was a statistically highly significant linear trend between increased parental LoC and higher probability of the children to be free from untreated caries, independent from the effect of sociodemographic variables of children and parents. A similar highly statistically significant trend, although not entirely linear, and independent from sociodemographic variables was observed with respect to the chance of the children to be free from caries experience with increasing strength of parental LoC. After full adjustment, children in the strongest parental LoC quintile were 2.81 (1.23–6.42, p< 0.05) times more likely to be free from untreated caries in comparison to the weakest parental LoC quintile and 2.32 (1.02–5.25, p< 0.05) times more likely to be free from caries experience in comparison to the weakest parental LoC quintile. Conclusion: The findings support the hypothesis that higher internal parental LoC is associated with better control of both untreated caries and caries experience in their preschool children and highlight that a more internal LoC within the family is advantageous in the prevention of dental caries

Oral health of preschool children and its relationship to demographic-social family background and parental attitudes and behaviour regarding caries prevention in children

1 SUMMARY The thesis is based on three cross-sectional studies. The first study analyzed long-term trends in caries experience of Czech 5yr olds. The data originated from 6 studies on caries experience of 5yr olds performed over the years 1994-2009. During this period, a significant increasing trend in dmft=0 was observed in Czech 5yr olds, the trends of mean dmft per child and mean d per child were not significant. The aim of the second study was to characterize family attitudinal and behavioural factors related to dental decay prevention. It was a questionnaire survey in parents of preschool children. The data was analyzed by factor analysis enabling to find latent associations among large number of variables with similar variability and group them into a smaller set of newly formed factors. The results showed that the parents have sufficient knowledge on the main risk factors for dental caries, however, in the caries prevention they mainly rely on dentists, they consider it normal to give sweets to children daily and they underestimate the seriousness of premature loss of primary tooth. The third study used logistic regression to analyze the relationship of parental locus of health control (LoC) and the risk of dental caries in primary dentition of their preschool children. It was observed that children..

Oral health attitudes and caries-preventive behaviour of Czech parents of preschool children

Objective. To characterize the oral health-related attitudes and behavior of Czech parents of preschool children. Materials and methods. A representative sample of 796 parents was recruited for the crosssectional questionnaire survey. Study data were collected using a validated questionnaire with 44 attitudinal items related to different aspects of caries prevention. The data were analyzed by explorative factor analysis, extracted factors were subjected to reliability analysis and Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA was used to test differences in the factor scores in respondents with different levels of education and selfperceived SES. Results. The factor analysis extracted 3 factors, labeled ”Toothbrushing – perceived significance and parental efficacy”; ”External caries control” and ”Internal caries control”. They explained 28.9% of the data variability. The comparison of the factor scores in groups with different SES and education of mothers showed highly significant differences. For all three factors, median values of the aggregated Likert scale increased with increasing SES and education of the mother. Conclusion. The parents report that they are aware of their responsibility for the prevention of tooth decay in their children. In caries prevention they concentrate on toothbrushing. Dietary measures do not seem to be of similar importance to them. The increasing self-perceived SES of the family and the education level of the mother have a significantly positive effect on the caries-preventive attitudes of the parents. Based on the study results, the message to the publichealth sector in the Czech Republic should include the need to highlight the importance of a non-cariogenic diet and the role of fluorides in caries prevention

Early childhood caries trends and surveillance shortcomings in the Czech Republic

Abstract Background Despite the decline in childhood caries prevalence, seen particularly in 1980s, in recent years there have been reports that the declining trend has stopped or even reversed in some countries. The aim of the study was to analyse data from previous epidemiological studies on early childhood caries in the Czech Republic, conduct a secondary analysis of trend in dental caries prevalence, and discuss issues related to national oral health surveillance. Methods Since the 1990s, caries prevalence in preschool children was monitored by two independent bodies: Institute of Health Information and Statistics (IHIS) that conducted 5 cross-sectional surveys over the period 1994–2006, and Institute of Dental Research (IDR) that conducted 4 studies over the years 1998–2010. Both study series differed in methods of sample selection and approaches to examiner training. For the assessment of the caries prevalence trends, regression modelling was used for the following oral-health indicators: caries experience, mean number of teeth with untreated caries (dt) and percentage of caries-free children. Results In both study series, a significant overall trend of declining caries experience and level of untreated caries, and an increasing trend of percentage of caries-free children was observed (p  Conclusions Both study series identified a significant decline of caries prevalence particularly in the 1990s and early 2000s. By the end of the investigated period, flattening of the caries decline was observed. The positive trend was observed in the absence of any systematic preventive initiatives on a population level. With respect to the above the authors assume that in the Czech Republic there still is a potential for further caries reduction in preschool population. This, however, cannot be expected without any health policy interventions. Oral health surveillance in the Czech Republic should be promoted by competent regulatory authorities.</p

Relationship between parental locus of control and caries experience in preschool children – cross-sectional survey

Abstract Background Due to high prevalence and serious impacts, childhood caries represents a public health issue. Behavioural risk factors such as locus of health control have been implicated in the development of the disease; however their association with childhood caries has not been thoroughly studied. The aim of this cross-sectional survey was to assess the relationship between parental locus of health control and caries experience and untreated caries of their preschool children in a representative sample in Czech Republic, adjusting for relevant sociodemographic characteristics. Methods A representative sample of 285 preschool children and their parents was recruited. Study data included children's dental status recorded in nurseries and parental questionnaires with 13 attitudinal items regarding locus of control (LoC) in caries prevention. The association between parental locus of control and children's caries experience and level of untreated caries was analysed using logistic regression, adjusting for the effect of key sociodemographic variables. Results There was a statistically highly significant linear trend between increased parental LoC and higher probability of the children to be free from untreated caries, independent from the effect of sociodemographic variables of children and parents. A similar highly statistically significant trend, although not entirely linear, and independent from sociodemographic variables was observed with respect to the chance of the children to be free from caries experience with increasing strength of parental LoC. After full adjustment, children in the strongest parental LoC quintile were 2.81 (1.23–6.42, p Conclusion The findings support the hypothesis that higher internal parental LoC is associated with better control of both untreated caries and caries experience in their preschool children and highlight that a more internal LoC within the family is advantageous in the prevention of dental caries.</p