Psoter Walter J, Pendrys David G, Morse Douglas E, Zhang Heping, Mayne Susan T
New York University College of Dentistry, Department of Epidemiology & Health Promotion, 345 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010, USA.
J Public Health Dent. 2006 Winter;66(1):23-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-7325.2006.tb02547.x.
The purpose of this project was to evaluate ethnicity/race, household income and caregiver education level as predictors of (1) any early childhood caries, and (2) each of four proposed patterns of primary dentition caries.
Between February 1994 and September 1995, five examiners visually examined Arizona pre-school children ages 5-59 months old. Self-reported demographic information including family income, caregiver education level and ethnicity/race were obtained at the time of examination. Multivariate analyses were conducted to assess the association of income, education and ethnicity/race with a child having any caries and with each of the proposed caries patterns seen in 3850 examinations.
Income and education were inversely associated with: (1) any early childhood caries, and (2) the maxillary incisor caries pattern. A positive association between these caries patterns and minority ethnicity/race status was also identified. Three additional caries intraoral patterns demonstrated more varied associations with socioeconomic status (SES), ethnicity/race and income and education.
This study supports the association of both ethnicity/race and social status with any early childhood caries. The patterns of caries were each found to be associated with specific and different socioeconomic-demographic indicators. The practical importance of these findings is that global measurement of ECC, without regard to specific caries pattern, leads to the potential for substantial non-differential misclassification of disease. The consequence of this is the potential for important ECC-SES-ethnicity/race associations to be masked. This, in turn, decreases the ability of surveys and investigations to accurately identify sub-groups of the population at greatest risk of developing ECC.
本项目旨在评估种族/民族、家庭收入和照料者教育水平作为以下因素的预测指标：（1）任何幼儿龋齿；（2）乳牙列龋齿的四种拟议模式中的每一种。
1994年2月至1995年9月期间，五名检查人员对年龄在5至59个月的亚利桑那州学龄前儿童进行了目视检查。在检查时获取了包括家庭收入、照料者教育水平和种族/民族在内的自我报告人口统计学信息。进行了多变量分析，以评估收入、教育和种族/民族与3850次检查中出现的有任何龋齿的儿童以及每种拟议龋齿模式之间的关联。
收入和教育与以下因素呈负相关：（1）任何幼儿龋齿；（2）上颌切牙龋齿模式。还发现这些龋齿模式与少数族裔/种族地位呈正相关。另外三种口腔内龋齿模式与社会经济地位（SES）、种族/民族以及收入和教育之间的关联更为多样。
本研究支持种族/民族和社会地位与任何幼儿龋齿之间的关联。发现每种龋齿模式都与特定且不同的社会经济人口统计学指标相关。这些发现的实际重要性在于，在不考虑特定龋齿模式的情况下对幼儿龋齿进行总体测量，可能会导致疾病的大量非差异性错误分类。其后果是重要的幼儿龋齿-社会经济地位-种族/民族关联可能被掩盖。这反过来又降低了调查和研究准确识别患幼儿龋齿风险最高的人群亚组的能力。
