Association between dental caries and body mass index-for-age among 6-11-year-old children

Background and aims. Childhood obesity has been associated with high refined sugar intake. The relationship between sucrose intake and development of dental caries has been established. The aim of this study was to determine the association between age-specific body mass index (BMI-for-age) and dental caries in children. Materials and methods. In this cross-sectional study a total of 1003 children were screened. Weight, height, BMI-for-age and dental caries of 633 (317 boys, 316 girls) 6-11-year-old children were clinically examined for dental caries using the World Health Organization criteria by a dentist on a den-tal chair. Decayed and filled teeth (DFT/dft) indices were used. BMI-for-age and dental caries were ana-lyzed with multiple linear regression, chi-square, and t-tests using SPSS computer software. Results. The findings showed that 16 % of the children had a normal weight, 16.9 % were at risk of overweight, and 67.1 % were overweight. In the normal weight, at risk of overweight, and overweight groups, the mean ± SE for DFT were 0.34 ± 0.08, 1.23 ± 0.13 and 0.73 ± 0.05, respectively; and 2.01 ± 0.19, 2.76 ± 0.18 and 2.59 ± 0.13 respectively, for dft. Multiple linear regression showed that there was no statistically significant association between BMI-for-age and DFT (R = 0.06) and dft (R = 0.07) indi-ces. 27.7%, 14 % and 37.2 % of children with normal weight, at risk of overweight and with overweight were caries free, respectively. There was statistically significant association between BMI-for-age and being caries free (p = 0.0001). Conclusion. There was no association between BMI-for-age and DFT/dft indices. In addition, a high prevalence of at risk of overweight and overweight was seen among 6-11-year-old children in Isafahan, Iran