Hábitos alimentares e cárie na primeira infância

Abstract

The link between high consumption of sugary foods and unhealthy diet, weight gain and increased risk of chronic diseases is a concern to a large number of countries worldwide. Among chronic diseases tooth decay is still the most common in children. The aims of this study were: 1) to assess the association between long-term breastfeeding and dental caries during the third year of children life and 2) to assess if maternal dietary habits during pregnancy can influence their children’s sucrose intake during second year of life. This retrospective study consisted of mother-child dyads followed-up by the Maternal and Child Public Oral Health Program in the School of Dentistry of Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil. Information about socioeconomic and demographic status, maternal dietary habits, breastfeeding duration, oral hygiene were collected by semi structured questionnaire. The children daily sucrose frequency intake was created about a frequency food questionnaire between 1 and 2-year-old. The daily sucrose frequency intake was dichotomized in = 7 times/day and > 7 times/day; and in <4 and =4 times/day for manuscript 1 and 2, respectively. For manuscript 1, dental caries (independent variables, dmfs=1) was collected. Multivariate analysis was performed using Poisson regression models with robust variance to estimate the prevalence ratio (PR) and the 95% confidence intervals. A total of 255 children were included. The prevalence of dental caries was 4.3%. Even after adjustments (familiar income, sucrose frequency and oral hygiene began) children who were breastfeed for a period = 24 months were more likely to have greater prevalence of dental caries [(PR = 12.71 (95%CI 1.22-132.91)]. In manuscript 2, a total of 204 mother-child dyads were included. Prevalence of sugar consumption at age 2 y was 100%. A high sucrose intake (=4 times/day) was detected in 90.69% of the children. After adjustment, the probability of the outcome (high sucrose intake) was almost 10% higher for children whose mothers reported drink sweetened beverage to satisfy their thirsty during pregnancy [PR = 1.09 (CI95%: 1.02-1.18)]. Conclusions: In this sample these data suggest that long-term breastfeeding was associated with higher dental caries prevalence and maternal sugar consumption habits can be a predictor to a high sucrose frequency intake by their children during early childhood. Further research that controls for other pertinent confounding factors is needed to better elucidate these matters.