Mother's demographic factors, sense of coherence, and social support as predictors of child's oral health behavior and dental caries.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to assess Mothers' demographic factors, sense of coherence (SOC), and social support (SS) as predictors of child's oral health behavior and dental caries.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 186 children aged 1-5 years and their mothers. Mother's SOC and SS were assessed using SOC scale and the multidimensional perceived scale of SS, respectively. The outcome variables, such as child oral health behavior and child dentition status, were assessed.

RESULTS

Mothers' education status (r = -0.204, P = 0.005) and the comprehensibility domain (r = -0.169, P = 0.021) of SOC were significantly negatively correlated with child's dental caries status. The child's dental caries prevalence among this sample was 32.2% (n = 60) with a mean score of 0.8 ± 1.4 and has majorly contributed to the total dmft score (35.5%, n = 66). The total mean dmft score was 0.8 ± 1.5. On the other hand, mothers' demographic variables, SS, and all the domains of SOC were significantly correlated with child's oral health behavior (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

A significant correlation was found between mothers' education, occupation, SS, SOC, and child oral health behavior. However, mothers' education and comprehensibility domain of the SOC scale showed an inverse correlation with the dental caries status of the child.