Department of Oral Health & Medicine, University Center for Dental Medicine Basel (UZB), University of Basel, 4058, Basel, Switzerland.
Department of General Pediatric and Adolescent Dentistry, University Center for Dental Medicine Basel (UZB), University of Basel, 4058, Basel, Switzerland.
Clin Oral Investig. 2022 Jan;26(1):325-331. doi: 10.1007/s00784-021-04003-6. Epub 2021 Jul 1.
This study analysed if children of families in need of dental interventions can be identified by using the caries status of the first-born child as a predictor for caries in younger siblings of the same family.
All children aged 4 to 15 years, i.e. 13,596 children, visiting a compulsory school in the canton of Basel-Stadt, Switzerland, during the school year 2017/2018 were analysed. Total caries experience and untreated carious lesions at time of examination were recorded as well as a subset of socioeconomic factors such as gender, age, nationality, birth order and the family's place of residence.
A total of 6738 schoolchildren who had at least one sibling of school age could be included. Differences in caries experience and the presence of active carious lesions were found for age, nationality and place of residence but not for gender or birth order. Younger siblings had odds of having a history of caries 3.7 times higher (95% confidence interval: 3.0-4.4) and odds of having active carious lesions 3.5 times higher (95% confidence interval: 2.6-4.7) if the eldest child in the family already had caries.
Caries could be shown to be family-dependent. Younger siblings had a more than three-fold higher risk for caries if the first-born child already had carious lesions.
Based on these results, the caries status of the first-born child could be used as a potential indicator to detect vulnerable families and to initiate targeted preventive measures.
本研究分析了是否可以通过使用第一个孩子的龋齿状况来预测同一家庭的年幼兄弟姐妹的龋齿情况，从而确定需要牙科干预的家庭的儿童。
对 2017/2018 学年期间在瑞士巴塞尔城市州一所义务教育学校就读的所有 4 至 15 岁的儿童（共 13596 名儿童）进行了分析。记录了总龋齿病史和检查时未经治疗的龋齿病变，以及部分社会经济因素，如性别、年龄、国籍、出生顺序和家庭居住地。
共有 6738 名至少有一个学龄兄弟姐妹的学童被纳入研究。在年龄、国籍和居住地方面发现了龋齿经历和活跃龋齿病变的差异，但在性别或出生顺序方面没有差异。如果家庭中的长子已有龋齿，那么年幼的兄弟姐妹有龋齿病史的可能性要高出 3.7 倍（95%置信区间：3.0-4.4），有活跃的龋齿病变的可能性要高出 3.5 倍（95%置信区间：2.6-4.7）。
龋齿可以证明是家族依赖性的。如果第一个孩子已经有龋齿病变，那么年幼的兄弟姐妹患龋齿的风险要高出三倍以上。
基于这些结果，第一个孩子的龋齿状况可以用作潜在指标，以发现弱势家庭并启动有针对性的预防措施。
