Table 2.
Deciduous caries prevalence of the surveyed children categorized by different factors of the questionnaire (n = 9804)
| Variables | Categories | No. of surveyed (No. of cases with dental caries) | Caries prevalence (%) | P-value (statistics1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guardians | Parents | 9002 (4196) | 46.61 | 0.076 (3.149a) |
| Grandparents | 802 (400) | 49.88 | ||
| Education level of guardians | Illiteracy | 26 (19) | 73.08 | < 0.001** (13.436) |
| Primary school | 52 (36) | 69.23 | ||
| Middle school | 497 (310) | 62.37 | ||
| High school | 704 (403) | 57.24 | ||
| Technical secondary school | 472 (270) | 57.20 | ||
| Junior college | 2065 (1033) | 50.02 | ||
| Undergraduate | 4532 (1958) | 43.20 | ||
| Graduate and above | 1456 (567) | 38.94 | ||
| Feeding patterns | Exclusive breastfeeding | 3162 (1570) | 49.65 | < 0.001** (20.015a) |
| Predominant breastfeeding | 2057 (934) | 45.41 | ||
| Exclusive artificial feeding | 1133 (550) | 48.54 | ||
| Predominant artificial feeding | 919 (402) | 43.74 | ||
| Combination feeding | 2533 (1140) | 45.01 | ||
| Eating desserts and candies (times per week) | < 1 | 503 (216) | 42.94 | < 0.001** (−4.432) |
| 1–2 | 908 (401) | 44.16 | ||
| 3–4 | 1272 (595) | 46.78 | ||
| 5–6 | 3217 (1427) | 44.36 | ||
| 7–8 | 2824 (1403) | 49.68 | ||
| > 8 | 1080 (554) | 51.30 | ||
| Drinking sweetened beverages (times per week) | < 1 | 3544 (1465) | 41.34 | < 0.001** (−8.810) |
| 1–2 | 2548 (1219) | 47.84 | ||
| 3–4 | 1806 (890) | 49.28 | ||
| 5–6 | 1259 (672) | 53.38 | ||
| 7–8 | 506 (265) | 52.37 | ||
| > 8 | 141 (85) | 60.28 | ||
| Eating sweets before sleep (days per week) | Rarely/never (< 1) | 4079 (1563) | 38.32 | < 0.001** (13.962) |
| Sometimes (1–3) | 5132 (2696) | 52.53 | ||
| Often (> = 4) | 593 (337) | 56.83 | ||
| The age of starting tooth- brushing (years old) | < 1 | 540 (183) | 33.89 | < 0.001** (−8.635) |
| 1 | 1424 (598) | 41.99 | ||
| 2 | 3304 (1503) | 45.49 | ||
| 3 | 2915 (1483) | 50.87 | ||
| > = 4 | 1621 (829) | 51.14 | ||
| Toothbrush (times per day) | < 1 | 5096 (2414) | 47.37 | 0.063 (1.860) |
| 1 | 3562 (1683) | 47.25 | ||
| > = 2 | 1146 (499) | 43.54 | ||
| Helping children brush teeth (days per week) | Rarely/never (< 1) | 1984 (984) | 49.60 | 0.001** (−3.332) |
| Sometimes (1–3) | 4480 (2115) | 47.21 | ||
| Often (4–6) | 276 (124) | 44.93 | ||
| Everyday (7) | 3064 (1373) | 44.81 | ||
| Parental perception about children’s oral health (score) | Poor (1–2) | 800 (701) | 87.63 | < 0.001** (36.423) |
| Fair (3) | 2759 (1794) | 65.02 | ||
| Good (4–5) | 6245 (2101) | 33.64 | ||
| Score of guardians’ oral health knowledge | 0–4 | 385 (182) | 47.27 | < 0.001** (3.516) |
| 5–9 | 1506 (791) | 52.52 | ||
| 10–14 | 7913 (3623) | 45.79 | ||
| Total | – | 9804 (4596) | 46.88 | – |
**P < 0.01
1a: Pearson Chi-square test (the statistics is χ2-value); the others were Cochran-Armitage test for trend (the statistics is Z-value)