Factors associated with dental caries among children/youth in Mbeere district.
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Date
2020Author
Wamiti, Catherine,W
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Anecdotal reports from Compassion International assisted projects indicated that dental
related conditions remained among the top five most prevalent conditions among the
children/youth since 2009 despite implementation of interventions aimed at reducing their
occurrence. Dental caries was the most reported dental condition. I sought out to establish the
prevalence of dental caries among these children/youth and factors associated with dental
caries occurrence.
Methods
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted where dental caries prevalence was
measured based on; World Health Organization (WHO) oral health assessment criteria which
included a clinical examination. Socio-demographic factors, children/youth oral health
behaviour, knowledge on dental caries prevention, caregiver’s knowledge on their children’s
oral health behaviour and contextual/ system factors were assessed using structured open and
closed ended interviewer administered questionnaires and key informant interview guides.
The study population comprised of 280 children/youth aged 4- 22 years and their caregivers.
Analysis for association was done using Chi square, Spearman’s rank-order correlation, linear
regression model, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Fisher’s exact test of association.
Results
The overall prevalence of dental caries for both children and youth was 21.8% with children
of age 6 – 12 years having a prevalence of 22.9% while youth of age >=13 years having axv
prevalence of 20.3%. The overall mean for decayed missing filled teeth (dmft) was 0.58+1.24
SD with children of age 6 – 12 years having a mean of 0.74+1.45 SD while the youth of age
>=13 years having a mean of 0.38+0.86 SD. An Independent-Samples t-test elicited a
statistically significant difference in means of children’s dental caries and age p = 0.011. A
Curve Estimation Linear Regression model elicited a statistically significant association
between age and decayed, missing, filled teeth (DMFT) p < 0.001. It means that as one
progresses in age, the likelihood of decay is high. Knowledge and practice factors that elicited
a statistically significant association with caries included; frequency of brushing p=0.029,
caregiver’s guidance during brushing p<0.001, knowledge of dental caries prevention p=0.015
and knowledge on remnants of food particles on the mouthy p=0.020. The knowledge of the
children/ youth on dental caries and its prevention was low at an average of 59.28%. Younger
children aged 6-12 years had a higher understanding of oral hygiene than the older ones aged
13 years and above.
Contextual and health system factors cited to hamper oral health services delivery included;
inaccessible oral health services due to limited facilities offering these services, the cost of
oral health services was out of reach for most respondents, delay in accessing oral treatment
related to distance from the facilities and congestion at the facilities. Additionally, inadequate
number of trained personnel in dental care was also cited one of the major challenges in oral
health care delivery. Lack of implementation of proper oral health care policy and inadequate
budgetary allocations on dental care at the county level also hampers oral service delivery.
Conclusion
The dental caries prevalence of the children/ youth was comparable with that of other studies
within the country (21.8%) with boys recording a higher prevalence than girls. The younger
children aged 6-12 years had a higher caries prevalence and DMFT than the older ones aged
13 years and above. Age was significantly associated with caries occurrence. Poor oral health
practices that were statistically significantly associated with caries including not regularly
brushing and brushing with the guidance of a caregiver. Some children/youth oral health
knowledge factors were significantly associated with dental caries including; children/youth
knowledge of preventability of dental caries and children/youth knowledge of remnants of
food particles in the mouth. Younger children aged 6-12 years had a higher understanding of
oral hygiene than the older ones aged 13 years and above. Caregiver factors were not
statistically significantly associated with dental caries occurrence among their children.
System factors of geographical access, affordability of services, inadequate oral health
budgetary allocations at the county level, inadequate trained personnel, and slow
implementation of the national policy on oral health hampers delivery of oral health services
and are likely to contribute to high dental caries prevalence.
Recommendation
Since dental caries prevalence has been shown to vary with age, age-graded oral health
education curriculum needs to be developed and implemented. Older children and youth aged
13 years and above demonstrated lower knowledge of oral health hygiene, there should be
special emphasis on oral health education for this age group including use of diverse methods
to reach them with oral health messages. Oral health education in schools needs to be given
greater emphasis particularly focusing on oral practices such as, consistent brushing of teeth,
use of fluoride toothpaste and visiting a dentist for check-up. Parents or guardians play a key
role in guiding children on brushing their teeth, it is important to equip them with the correct
information on brushing so that they pass accurate information to their children. The county
government should increase the number of public facilities offering affordable oral health care
and facilitate provision of oral health education to the communities and schools. Budgetary
allocation for oral health care at the county level needs to be prioritized and increased. There
is need to also fast track implementation of the oral health policy to mitigate oral diseases
burden, facilitate equitable cost-effective quality oral health care and adoption of good oral
health related lifestyles through engagement with public, private and community partnerships.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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