Table 3.
Associations between dental caries and univariate socioeconomic variables among nursery children in Abu Dhabi. N = 147
| Independent variable | Groups | % | Mean dmft (SD) | P-valuea | Mean SIC (SD) | P-valueb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Father’s education level | High school or below | 12.6 | 2.9 (3.6) | 0.062 | 5.3 (3.3) | 0.065 |
| University degree | 87.4 | 1.2 (2.5) | 4.6 (3.2) | |||
| Mother’s education level | High school or below | 20.8 | 3.2 (3.7) | 0.000 | 5.4 (3.40) | 0.001 |
| University degree | 79.2 | 0.9 (2.2) | 4.5 (3.0) | |||
| Self-rated financial status | Lower middle income | 2.2 | 2.5 (3.5) | 5.0 (−) | 0.775 | |
| Middle income | 62.6 | 1.6 (3.0) | 0.651 | 5.4 (0.6) | ||
| Higher middle income | 33.8 | 1.1 (2.1) | 3.9 (2.2) | |||
| Wealthy | 1.4 | – | – | |||
| Parents’ perception of their child’s dental status | Very good | 41.5 | 1.0 (1.8) | 0.000 | 3.9 (2.10) | 0.000 |
| Satisfactory | 51.0 | 1.1 (2.3) | 4.5 (2.9) | |||
| Dissatisfactory | 6.8 | 6.9 (4.1) | 6.9 (4.1) | |||
| Very dissatisfactory | 0.7 | – | 0 (0) |
Abbreviations: dmft decayed, missing and filled teeth index, SIC significant caries index, SD standard deviation
aThe significance of the dmft scores as measured by the Mann-Whitney U test or Kruskal-Wallis test as appropriate
bthe significance of SIC scores as measured by Pearson chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests as appropriate