Prevalence of Oral and Systemic Disease Between Bonded Child Laborers and School Children in Bagalur, Tamil Nadu, India

Objective: This study compares the prevalence of oral and systemic disease between bonded child laborers and school children living in Bagalur, Tamil Nadu, India. This is the first study to compare both the oral and systemic health between bonded child laborers and school children. The research hypothesis was that public school children were less likely to experience oral and systemic disease than bonded child laborers. Methods: School children (N=50) and bonded child laborers (N=52) were examined by a medical doctor and two dental examiners (IRB # 15-3001), who recorded the presence or absence of disease. Chi-square analysis was used to compare the two groups of children. Level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: The proportion of children (p=0.001) with at least some dental decay was significantly different (71% vs 36%) for child laborers (N =52) than school children (N=50). Child laborers were 1.9 times more likely to have decay than school children (95% CI, 1.2-2.9). Dental pain was reported by 40% of the child laborers compared to 18% of school children (p=0.018) and child laborers were 2.2 times more likely to experience dental pain than school children (95% CI,1.1-4.4). Fifty-one percent of child laborers required urgent dental treatment compared to 12% of school children (p