The effects of socio-economic status on dental caries incidence in a group of primary school children, Tehran-2000

Dental caries is one of the most common and costly chronic diseases in the world. Many studies have reported socio-economic status (S.E.S) as an important factor predisposing caries. This investigation was carried out to evaluate the effect of differences in socio-economic status of parents as a multidimensional factor on caries development in a group of 8-year-old children in Tehran during the year 2000. A total of 1024 children were randomly selected from 99 primary schools throughout the greater Tehran.The prevalence of dental caries was recorded using the “DMFT” and “dmft” indices. S.E.S was assessed through evaluating, parent's educational level, father's job. Collected data was then analyzed using Chi-square and oneway ANOVA tests, in association to a regression analysis. Results showed that, the mean caries prevalence in primary teeth (d) to be at 2.4±2.4 and 4.6±2.3 in the highest and lowest socio-economic status respectively. This value was at 2.1±2.4 and 4.5±2.3 in children of highly educated mothers and illiterate ones, respectively. There were similar findings for the effect of the other factors determining S.E.S, on caries prevalence of the children. Regression Analysis showed that, mother's education was as important as the other factors to determine the family's S.E.S. This was in fact found to be the most effective factor on caries prevalence.(PV=0.01). S.E.S is an important factor on caries prevalence, with mother's educational level being the main determining factor on S.E.S.