Associação entre estado nutricional, consumo de açúcar e cárie dentária em crianças de 12 anos

Abstract

Obesity and dental caries are multifatorial diseases that share common risk factors, including a high sugar diet. Both are recognized by the World Health Organization as global health issues and are expensive in terms of public health costs. The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between nutritional status, sugar consumption and dental caries in children. It’s a cross-sectional study with a sample of 406 twelve year-old children, from public schools of a socioeconomically disadvantaged region in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Clinical data on caries and nutritional status were collected by five calibrated examiners, using the decayed component of DMFT index and the z-score from Body Mass Index, respectively. Dietary habits were obtained from Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Sociodemographic characteristics, socioeconomic condition, psychosocial factors and health behaviors were assessed by questionnaire applied to the children and their parents/guardians. The study variables were established according to the Social Determinants of Health by WHO. Data were statistically analyzed by SPSS software. Bivariate analysis and Poisson regression were performed, as well as Spearman correlation and an interaction test between the sugar consumption and z-score variables. Most of the sample (72,7%) consisted of normal weight children, followed by 17% overweight children, 6.9% obese children and 3.5% underweight children. Children in general showed high daily sugar consumption (116.4 grams per day) and presented a mean DMFT of 1.49 and a mean decayed teeth of 0.87. Underweight had an independent effect on dental caries, in the adjusted model for sugar consumption, where underweight children presented 83% more non treated decayed teeth. Futhermore, the correlation between z-score and annual sugar consumption was negative. Therefore, in this population, underweight children showed higher risk of developing dental caries, in addition to presenting higher sugar consumption. Concluding, a significant inverse association was found between dental caries and nutritional status, although the mechanisms for this relationship have not yet been elucidated.