Development level of the country of parental origin on dental caries in children of immigrant parents in Sweden

Abstract

Aim: To study the association of parental country of origin-expressed as low-, medium- and high-Human Development Index (HDI) countries-with caries experience in children of immigrant families in Stockholm.

Methods: This registry-based cohort study included all children born in 2000-2003 who resided in Stockholm County, Sweden, at age 3 years (n = 83,147) with follow-up at 7 years of age. A logistic regression was performed for the multivariate analysis with adjustments for socio-demographic factors.

Results: After adjustments, logistic regression analyses revealed that, compared with Swedish children of the same age, the risk of caries was highest when the immigrant parents originated in a medium (OR 4.22 (95% CI 3.99:4.47)) or low (OR 2.80 (95% CI 2.56:3.06)) income country background at age 7 years, but was increased also for high-income country background, OR 1.77 (95% CI 1.52-2.05). Furthermore, the risk of presenting with caries experience at age 7 years increased for all children in the 1^st (lowest) household income quintile in the host country Sweden.

Conclusion: This study shows that the developmental level of the parental country of birth as well as the family socioeconomic position in Sweden influence the risk for caries development in their children.

Keywords: dental caries; ethnicity; preschool children; risk assessment; socioeconomic status.