TY - JOUR

T1 - Free sugars and early childhood caries development

T2 - a prospective cohort study

AU - Boustedt, K.

AU - Roswall, J.

AU - Twetman, S.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Purpose: To investigate the impact of giving children younger than 2 years foods and beverages with free sugars on the prevalence of early childhood caries at 5 years. Materials and methods: The study group consisted of 208 children (105 boys and 103 girls) with a complete set of data on nursing, diet and caries from birth to 5 years. We collected feeding habits and dietary data through structured questionnaires at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months and the presence of decayed (d), missed (m) and filled (f) teeth was scored according to the WHO criteria at five years of age. We processed data with chi-square tests and expressed as relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals. Results: At the age of 5 years, 22% of the children had caries. Intake of fruit juice with meals (RR 2.3) and cookies or biscuits at 24 months of age (RR 2.4), as well as fast food consumption at least once every week (RR 2.9), more than doubled the risk for early childhood caries (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Within the limitations of the present study, we found a relationship between consumption of free sugars early in life and dental caries prevalence at 5 years. It therefore seems important to embrace and emphasise the current sugar recommendations in primary and dental care to educate caregivers to avoid serving free sugars to their children before the age of 2 years.

AB - Purpose: To investigate the impact of giving children younger than 2 years foods and beverages with free sugars on the prevalence of early childhood caries at 5 years. Materials and methods: The study group consisted of 208 children (105 boys and 103 girls) with a complete set of data on nursing, diet and caries from birth to 5 years. We collected feeding habits and dietary data through structured questionnaires at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months and the presence of decayed (d), missed (m) and filled (f) teeth was scored according to the WHO criteria at five years of age. We processed data with chi-square tests and expressed as relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals. Results: At the age of 5 years, 22% of the children had caries. Intake of fruit juice with meals (RR 2.3) and cookies or biscuits at 24 months of age (RR 2.4), as well as fast food consumption at least once every week (RR 2.9), more than doubled the risk for early childhood caries (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Within the limitations of the present study, we found a relationship between consumption of free sugars early in life and dental caries prevalence at 5 years. It therefore seems important to embrace and emphasise the current sugar recommendations in primary and dental care to educate caregivers to avoid serving free sugars to their children before the age of 2 years.

KW - Early childhood caries

KW - Fruit juice

KW - Preschool children

KW - Risk factors

KW - Sugars

U2 - 10.1007/s40368-022-00745-3

DO - 10.1007/s40368-022-00745-3

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35976492

AN - SCOPUS:85136189620

VL - 23

SP - 829

EP - 833

JO - European archives of paediatric dentistry

JF - European archives of paediatric dentistry

SN - 1818-6300

IS - 5

ER -