Andegiorgish Amanuel Kidane, Weldemariam Bizen Weldmicheal, Kifle Meron Mehari, Mebrahtu Filmon Gebreysus, Zewde Henos Keflom, Tewelde Micheal Gebregziabhir, Hussen Mohammed Anwar, Tsegay Winta Kesete
School of Public Health, Asmara College of Health Sciences, Asmara, Eritrea.
Ministry of Health, Asmara, Eritrea.
BMC Oral Health. 2017 Dec 29;17(1):169. doi: 10.1186/s12903-017-0465-3.
Dental caries is one of the most prevalent diseases of childhood in developing countries. However, there is a paucity of epidemiological data on the prevalence and associated factors of dental caries in Eritrea. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of dental caries among 12 years old school children in Eritrea.
A school based cross sectional study was conducted among 225 twelve years old students in two selected schools. One school from randomly selected urban and rural subzones of the country were selected. WHO adopted questionnaire and a standard checklist were used to collect relevant data. To assess dental caries, two examiners were calibrated by a certified dentist and inter observer agreement was calculated using the Cohen's Kappa statistic (0.82). All data analysis was done using SPSS version 20.
The prevalence of dental caries was 78%, without significant difference between males (78%) and females (79%).The mean DMFT value was 2.50 (±2.21). The decayed component contributed 98.3% of the score as it had 2.44 (±1.2) share to the mean DMFT value. The first molar was the most affected tooth with a DMFT value of 1.55 (±1.36). The mean significant caries index score (SiC) was 4.97 (±1.9) which is higher than the upper limit of SiC value of 3 set by the WHO as a global average. More than half of the respondents had never visited a dentist and out of the students who had utilized a dental health facility, 82% of visits were due to dental pain while visits for regular checkups were cited by only 6.6% of the respondents.
Dental caries was found to be a common public health problem among 12 years old Eritrean students. The prevalence of dental caries, mean DMFT and SiC scores were higher than the average score of other developing countries. Gaps in dental health service utilization, dental health practices and suboptimal water fluoride levels contribute to poor dental health among school children in Eritrea.
在发展中国家，龋齿是儿童中最常见的疾病之一。然而，厄立特里亚缺乏关于龋齿患病率及相关因素的流行病学数据。本研究的目的是评估厄立特里亚12岁在校儿童龋齿的患病率及相关因素。
在两所选定学校的225名12岁学生中开展了一项基于学校的横断面研究。从该国随机选取的城乡分区各选了一所学校。采用世界卫生组织认可的问卷和标准检查表收集相关数据。为评估龋齿情况，两名检查人员由一名认证牙医进行校准，并使用科恩卡方统计量计算观察者间一致性（0.82）。所有数据分析均使用SPSS 20版完成。
龋齿患病率为78%，男性（78%）和女性（79%）之间无显著差异。平均龋失补指数（DMFT）值为2.50（±2.21）。龋损部分占得分的98.3%，因为其对平均DMFT值的贡献为2.44（±1.2）。第一恒磨牙是受影响最严重的牙齿，DMFT值为1.55（±1.36）。平均显著龋指数（SiC）得分为4.97（±1.9），高于世界卫生组织设定的全球平均SiC值上限3。超过一半的受访者从未看过牙医，在使用过牙科保健设施的学生中，82%的就诊原因是牙痛，而只有6.6%的受访者表示是进行定期检查。
龋齿是厄立特里亚12岁学生中常见的公共卫生问题。龋齿患病率、平均DMFT和SiC得分高于其他发展中国家的平均水平。牙科保健服务利用、口腔健康习惯方面的差距以及氟化物水平不理想导致厄立特里亚学龄儿童口腔健康状况不佳。
