Table 4.
Summary of responses to "Dietary habits" and their relationship with plaque score
| Dietary habits Items | Responses and Binarization† | Relationship with plaque score |
| 1. Frequency of meals (per day) n = 65 | NS | |
| none | 0 (0) | |
| 1x | 0 (0) | |
| 2x | 9 (14) | |
| 3x | 56 (86) | |
| 4x or more | 0 (0) | |
| 2. Self-evaluation of diet n = 61 | NS | |
| Good | 30 (49) | |
| Fair | 23 (38) | |
| Bad | 8 (13) | |
| 3. Frequency of between-meal snacks (sweets) n = 55 | NS | |
| none | 14 (25) | |
| 1x | 27 (49) | |
| 2x | 13 (24) | |
| 3x | 1 (2) | |
| 4x or more | 0 (0) | |
Values are expressed in n (%). Items subjected to the statistical analysis were shown.
†Responses were grouped into two (as separated by dotted line) and compared with two categories of PCR (≥ 40% vs. < 40%) by Fisher's exact test. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
NS; not significant