The Influence of Lifestyle on the Incidence of Dental Caries among 3-Year-Old Japanese Children

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Masako Watanabe¹  Da-Hong Wang²  Akihiro Ijichi³  Chika Shirai³  Yu Zou¹  Masayuki Kubo¹  Kei Takemoto¹  Chie Masatomi¹  Keiki Ogino¹ 

[1] Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, 2-5-1 Shikata-cho, Okayama 700-8558, Japan; E-Mails:;Department of Biochemistry, Okayama University of Science, 1-1 Ridai-cho, Okayama 700-0005, Japan; E-Mail:;Kobe City Public Health Center, 6-5-1 Kano-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-8570, Japan; E-Mails:

关键词: dental caries;    3-year-olds;    lifestyles;    risk factors;    cohort study;    child’s bedtime;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph111212611

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The present cohort study examined how lifestyle, household environment, and caries activity test score of Japanese children at age 1.5 years affected their dental caries incidence at age 3. Inclusion criteria were 1.5-year-old children with no dental caries. Dental examinations were performed for 33,655 children who participated in routine dental examinations at 1.5 years of age, and the exam was repeated approximately 21 months later (at age 3) at the Kobe City Public Health Center in Japan. After excluding 622 children who had caries at age 1.5 and 1831 children with missing lifestyle and household environment data in the questionnaires, the final data analysis was performed on a total of 31,202 children (16,052 boys, 15,150 girls).The multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated a strong association of the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages/snacks, less frequent tooth brushing by the parents, lack of fluoride varnish, family history of smoking, with the risk of developing dental caries. A child’s late bedtime is also one of the major risk factors for dental caries development. Further investigation is needed to examine whether the short duration or the irregularity of the sleep-wake cycle would affect early childhood oral health and whether there is a relationship between late bedtime and late night snack intake.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.