Self-Reported Dental Caries by Mexican Elementary and Middle-School Schoolchildren in the Context of Socioeconomic Indicators: A National Ecological Study

• Published in: Children (Basel) Vol. 8; no. 4; p. 289
• Main Authors: Casanova-Rosado, Juan Fernando, Casanova-Rosado, Alejandro José, Minaya-Sánchez, Mirna, Casanova-Sarmiento, Juan Alejandro, Robles-Minaya, José Luis, Márquez-Rodríguez, Sonia, Mora-Acosta, Mariana, Islas-Zarazúa, Rosalina, Márquez-Corona, María de Lourdes, Ávila-Burgos, Leticia, Medina-Solís, Carlo Eduardo, Maupomé, Gerardo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 08.04.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Age; Childrens health; Dental care; Dental caries; Dental health; Ecological studies; Elementary schools; Families & family life; Fluorides; Health care policy; Health services; Industrialized nations; Mexico; Middle schools; Oral diseases; oral health; Oral hygiene; Pediatrics; Population; Prevention; Private schools; Public health; schoolchildren; Self report; Socioeconomic factors; Teeth; Toothpaste; Variables; Mexico; dental caries; schoolchildren; Mexico; oral health; self-report
• ISSN: 2227-9067; 2227-9067
• DOI: 10.3390/children8040289

The objective of the present research was to quantify the association between dental caries self-report and socioeconomic indicators in Mexican children. An ecological study included a self-report of dental caries in schoolchildren enrolled in public elementary and middle schools derived from the National School Health Survey. A total of 73,560 schoolchildren (representing 19,745,366 students) aged 5 to 16 years were included. Socioeconomic variables included were scales depicting physical characteristics of housing, purchasing power, etc. used in national surveys in Mexico to measure deprivation, poverty, and income inequality in official data. Data were analyzed in Stata using Spearman's correlation test. For the most part, no association ( > 0.05) was found between caries self-report, socioeconomic variables, or the Gini index. However, caries self-report in elementary schoolchildren and total (elementary + middle-school) schoolchildren groups was positively correlated ( < 0.05) with two poverty variables: extreme poverty by income (value of personal food purchases per month) and poverty by income (value of personal food and non-food purchases per month). National data for dental caries self-report were associated-at the ecological level-with a few socioeconomic indicators but not with most of the usual and customary indicators used in national surveys in Mexico.