Prevalence of early childhood caries in South Africa: a systematic review

BMC Oral Health

Sudeshni Naidoo¹  Robert Barrie¹  Tina Roberts²  Faheema Kimmie-Dhansay³ 

[1] Department of Community Oral Health, Faculty of Dentistry, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa;Department of Oral Biology and Dental Genetics, Faculty of Dentistry, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa;Division of Research and Postgraduate Studies, Faculty of Dentistry, Tygerberg Hospital - UWC Dental School, University of the Western Cape, Francie Van Zijl Drive, Parow, 7500, Cape Town, South Africa;

关键词: Early childhood caries;    Prevalence;    South Africa;    ECC;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12903-021-01982-6

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe prevalence of Early Childhood Caries (ECC) in South Africa was last determined in 2002 in a national survey. Since then only few scattered studies were conducted across pocketed communities in the country. There appears to be an increasing trend in dental caries prevalence in South Africa. Since South Africa has one of the highest burden of HIV in the world, less focus was spent on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), it was only when HIV patients developed NCD’s did the government start evaluating NCDs. However, oral health is still not given enough attention within the health sphere. It is the hope of this systematic review to showcase the extent of dental caries amongst the future leaders of our country.ObjectivesThe systematic review presents the prevalence and severity of early childhood caries between age groups and provinces in South Africa from 1975 to 2014.DesignA systematic review of prevalence was performed. Settings and participants: All studies performed on children under the age of six who lived in South Africa were eligible to be included.Primary and Secondary outcome measuresThe prevalence of ECC and the dmft scores were the primary and secondary outcome measures.ResultsTwenty-one studies were included in the present review. The overall prevalence was 44.94% (95% confidence interval (C.I.) 39.73–50.15%) and the overall dmft score was 2.422 (95% C.I. 2.148–2.696).ConclusionsThe dmft score was the lowest in the Limpopo Province and highest in the Eastern Cape. ECC prevalence increased post-apartheid possibly on account of lifestyle changes due to the exodus from rural to urban and peri-urban areas.Registration The protocol of this systematic review was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42018112161, in November 2018.

【 授权许可】

CC BY