Oral health and linear growth in primary school children: a five-year longitudinal study

Young children are in the fundamentally important physical and cognitive growth phases of their life. Undermining the health issues of this critical segment of the population may seriously affect communities’ health and development. Linear growth among children is a fundamental health index, which is affected by so many different factors. This study was carried out to evaluate the growth status of school-age children to identify some demographic and clinical factors that can predict linear growth among schoolchildren in the fourth largest Iranian city.
The present retrospective cohort study was carried out on a large sample (n=2488)of female and male schoolchildren from the first (7-year-old) to the last year (12-year-old) of primary school in Shiraz, the capital of Fars province.
Adjusted for the other study variables, negative and significant associations were found between children’s height Z-score and family size (P<0.001); and the number of decayed teeth (P=0.03). However, a direct and significant association was found between father’s education and children’s height Z-score (P=0.01). Concerning their weight, paternal literacy was inversely associated with the children’s weight Z-score (P=0.002). A positive and significant association was also found between the birth order and children’s weight (P=0.04).
Oral health is an important parameter in children’s growth and possibly development. Oral health services should be provided to children before school age.