Influence of parental factors on children oral health status

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the influence of parental factors on the child’s oral health status (OHS). Method: Home visits were made to selected families with a child at age 5-7 years in Hong Kong. The father and mother separately completed a questionnaire regarding his/her own oral health knowledge and attitudes (OHKA) and oral health behaviours (OHB). Another questionnaire about parent’s OHKA towards the child and the child’s OHB was completed by one of the parents. Clinical examinations were conducted by one calibrated examiner to assess the OHS of all subjects including oral hygiene, tooth, and periodontal status. Structural Equation model (SEM) was used to assess the influence of parental factors on the child’s OHS.

Result: 432 families with 359 fathers, 419 mothers and 432 children participated. Since the OHKA, OHB and OHS between the father and mother were highly correlated, only data of one parent was used to assess their influence on the child’s OHS. In order to obtain a larger sample size, data from the mother-child pair was used. From the SEM, it was found that better socio-economic status of mothers (MSES) led to better OHKA towards themselves (γ=0.75, p<0.05) and also towards their children (POHKA) (γ=0.44, p<0.05). Better POHKA led to more positive oral health behaviors of the children (COHB) (β=0.40, p<0.05). Mothers’ positive oral health behaviors (MOHB) also led to positive COHB (β=0.60, p<0.05). Positive COHB led to better oral health status of the children (COHS) (β=-0.48, p<0.05). The mothers’ oral health status (MOHS) did not show significant relationship with COHS. The explained variance of the child’s OHS was 26.3%.

Conclusion: Children’s oral health status was directly affected by their own oral health behaviors and indirectly by their mother’s socio-economic status, oral health knowledge, attitudes, and oral health behaviors.