1M.D.S (III year),
2Professor & Head,
3Senior Lecturer,
4M.D.S (II year),
*Corresponding Author: Dr. Shivani Agrawal, M.D.S (III year),
Childhood overweight and obesity are becoming a major public health concern all over the world. Change in lifestyles and economic growth have led to sedentary lifestyle and altered dietary patterns. There are conflicting reports in the literature regarding the association between BMI and dental caries from various parts of the world. Thereby justifying the need for this study.
The aim of the study was to assess the association between BMI and Dental Caries.
1000 subjects aged between 6-12 years were taken as the sample size. Subsequently they were divided into three BMI categories overweight, underweight and normal according to the WHO criteria. Caries prevalence in all the three groups was recorded and the data thus collected was tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis.
Comparing the three groups, it was seen that the overweight group showed caries prevalence to be 83.8% whereas the underweight and normal groups reported 59.5% and 46.7% respectively. While comparing the overweight and underweight groups a significant difference between the two was noted as was the case with overweight and normal groups. Similarly, a significant difference was seen in normal and underweight groups. Thus, a significant difference was observed between all the three groups using Chi-square test.
The prevalence of dental caries was found to be significantly more in overweight group followed by underweight and normal groups respectively.
BMI, Dental Caries, Caries prevalence