Figure 4. Odds Ratio of ECC events in prenatal oral health care intervention group and control group.
Meta-analysis was performed on four studies that assessed ECC incidence. In particular, Günay et al, 1998 examined the same cohort of children at two time points, when they reached 3- and 4- years of age; their results were included as two data sets in the meta-analysis. Study heterogeneity (I2=75.06%) and the related p-value were calculated using likelihood ratio test (p<0.0001). The empirical odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of each study included in the meta-analysis was shown in (A). Based on the generalized linear mixed effect model with covariate age, the estimates of OR and 95% CI shown in (B) indicate that regarding ECC incidence, there is a statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups for children younger than 4 years of age. The solid line indicates when OR=1.