Early childhood caries in multilingual community.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence and severity of early childhood caries (ECC) among different social groups of preschool children in ethnic and multilingual diverse community such as South Backa District (SBD), Republic of Serbia. METHODS: This survey was a cross-sectional analytical study and sample type has been projected by simple random choice of 13-71 months old children together with their parents of varied socioeconomic status (SES) and nationality in SBD. Preschool children were randomly selected through a two-stage cluster sampling procedure and parents were invited to answer the questionnaire regarding SES, native language, education, and income issues. The WHO caries diagnostic criterion was used and the severity of ECC was defined by Wine's modified criteria. The data was further analyzed using the SPSS for Windows Microsoft Excel, version 21. The percentage of caries-free children was compared using the χ2 test, and one-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean disease indices at the 5% significance. RESULTS: A total of 341 children were examined and the prevalence of ECC was 30.5%. "White spot" initial caries lesions were the most prevalent form and the highest disease frequency was found in male children (p = 0.038), who did not speak official Serbian language (p = 0.009), in children of the part-time employed parents (p < 0.001), with elementary education (p = 0.001), in low monthly income families (p = 0.023), and Roma ethnic group. CONCLUSIONS: The complex interaction of risk factors like social environment along with ethnicity and Serbian language ignorance had a significant influence on the prevalence and severity of ECC in preschool children of this multi-ethnic region.

Using association rule mining to identify risk factors for early childhood caries.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a potentially severe disease affecting children all over the world. The available findings are mostly based on a logistic regression model, but data mining, in particular association rule mining, could be used to extract more information from the same data set. METHODS: ECC data was collected in a cross-sectional analytical study of the 10% sample of preschool children in the South Backa area (Vojvodina, Serbia). Association rules were extracted from the data by association rule mining. Risk factors were extracted from the highly ranked association rules. RESULTS: Discovered dominant risk factors include male gender, frequent breastfeeding (with other risk factors), high birth order, language, and low body weight at birth. Low health awareness of parents was significantly associated to ECC only in male children. CONCLUSIONS: The discovered risk factors are mostly confirmed by the literature, which corroborates the value of the methods.

[The presence of early childhood caries among the members of different ethnic groups of the South Backa District].

BACKGROUND/AIM: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a special form of caries in primary dentition that affect teeth after eruption, with rapid progression, later symptomatology and numerous complications. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of ECC among different ethnic groups of preschool children in the South Backa District. METHODS: The survey was performed as a cross-sectional analytical study on the sample of preschool children of both sexes and different ethnic groups in the South Backa District. The diagnosis and the clinical form of ECC was defined by dental check-ups according to the modified Wyne's criteria: the initial form (type 1) shows carious lesions without disturbing the surface structure of the tooth enamel, the moderate form (type 2) shows carious lesions affecting one or two teeth or their surfaces, the middle form (type 3) shows carious lesions affecting more than two teeth or their surfaces, the severe form (type 4) shows the presence of two and more gangrenous roots in the maxilla intercanini sector, and the severe form with complications (type 5) shows the presence of two and more gangrenous roots in the maxilla intercanini sector with the presence of fistula and/or abscess of tooth root apex. Epidemiological data on the different ethnic groups were obtained by interviewing the parents of the examined children. The tests on significant statistical differences was performed by the variance analysis and chi2 test. RESULTS: The prevalence of ECC in children oped 41.32 +/- 8.57 months, of the South Backa District was 30.5%. The highest disease frequency was found in Roma children (50.0%) as well as in children of Ruthenian nationality (43.8%), than in children of Slovakia nationality (37.8%), Serbian (26.1%), Hungerian (25.4%) and other nationalities (27.4%). The frequency of types 1, 3, 4, and 5 ECC was twice as high as in children who do not speak Serbian language. CONCLUSION: The frequency of ECC occurence is different among ethnic groups. The highest frequency of ECC is present among the members of ethnic groups whose native language is not Serbian.

[Influence of social environment on caries prevalence in early childhood].

INTRODUCTION: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a special form of caries that affects decideous teeth with rapid progression and numerous complications. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to define the prevalence of ECC in children of the South Backa area, the importance of social environment for the prevalence and severity of ECC, and define the model for its prevention. METHODS: The survey was the cross-sectional analytical study in the 10% sample of children, aged 13-64 months, different sex, social status and human environment. Severity and prevalence of ECC were assessed by dental check-ups. The epidemiological data were obtained by the interview of parents. The tests of significant statistical differences were performed by the analysis variance and chi2 (p < 0.05) test, as well as interdependence of ECC and single characteristics that could be a predictor of the disease by the logistic regression. RESULTS: The prevalence of ECC was 30.5%. The highest disease frequency was found in children of male sex (35.1%), out of kindergardens (54.2%), in the third and the next born child in the family (46.9%) and in part-time employed mothers (47.2%) who had only elementary education (59.3%) and were poorly informed about oral health. The highest prevalence (47.1%) of ECC was found in children whose parents had the lowest income per month. Type 1 of ECC was the most presented one (75.0%). CONCLUSION: The higher prevalence and more severe ECC were found in the third and the next born male child from rural environment.