Children's detailed non-water beverage consumption habits and longitudinal early childhood caries experiences.

OBJECTIVES

Sugar-sweetened beverages and dental caries are prevalent among children. Measurement choices could explain their inconsistent relationships. This study evaluated associations between detailed baseline non-water beverage consumption (NWBC) behaviors and longitudinal early childhood caries (ECC) experiences in young, high-caries risk children.

METHODS

Researchers followed poor, rural, African Americans, recruited at 8-18 months old from Uniontown, Alabama, through convenience sampling, annually for 5 years (N = 66). Baseline questionnaires obtained demographics, oral hygiene, and daily dietary histories, including beverage types, frequencies, and NWBC behaviors of intake speed (intermittent/rapid), container (bottles/non-bottles), and bedtime beverages (yes/no). Dentists conducted examinations annually to determine decayed, missing, filled (carious) surfaces (dmfs) scores, producing increments (dmfsfinal - dmfsinitial ). Age-adjusted logistic regressions estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for ECC (carious: incidence >0 versus caries-free: incidence = 0) with NWBC behavior then NWBC frequency, individually and conditional on NWBC behaviors, exposures.

RESULTS

NWBC behaviors were not associated with ECC; juice was significant (OR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.0, 4.2). Adjusting for intake speed, juice persisted as a risk factor (OR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.0, 4.3), remaining suggestive after controlling for container or bedtime beverages (OR: 2.0, 95% CI: 0.9, 4.3; OR: 1.9, 95% CI: 0.9, 4.0, respectively). Container could be an effect modifier (ORbottle : 3.5, 95% CI: 0.8, 16.2 vs. ORnon-bottle : 1.5, 95% CI: 0.6, 3.7). Milk was not associated with ECC.

CONCLUSIONS

Independently, NWBC behaviors are insufficient in evaluating NWBC/ECC relationships; beverage type, frequency, and consumption behaviors, collectively, can better evaluate associations.