Department of Dental Public Health and Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Benghazi, Benghazi, Libya.
BMC Oral Health. 2023 Jan 25;23(1):44. doi: 10.1186/s12903-023-02728-2.
Dental caries and Obesity in children are issues of public health concern. Even though researching the relationship between these two noncommunicable diseases has been conducted for many years, the results remain equivocal. This paper aimed to examine the association between dental caries and obesity among 12-year-old schoolchildren living in war-affected environment in Benghazi.
A secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of caries among 12-year-old school children in Benghazi in 2017 during the armed conflict that affected the city. The data extracted for the analysis included sociodemographic of the participants (gender, maternal education and school type), caries experience (DMFT index), and anthropometric measures (height in cm, weight in kg, BMI and Z score for BMI). Comparisons of anthropometric measures were conducted according to caries experience. Linear regression models were developed to determine the association between Body Mass Index and Z score as outcome variables, caries as an explanatory variable, and covariates (gender, maternal education and school type). Beta coefficient (β) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. All statistical tests were conducted at p ≤ 0.05.
There were 782 children with a mean (SD) BMI of 20.7 SD5.09 and an average z (SD) score of 0.56 SD1.51. Also, 159 (20%) children had obesity. No significant association was observed between caries and anthropometric measures. However, higher BMI was observed in children from a private school (p ≤ 0.001***), females (p ≤ 0.001***) and self-reported regular sugary drinks consumers (p ≤ 0.001***).
The present study shows no significant association between dental caries and anthropometric measures. However, the study findings support the notion of tackling sugar intake as a common risk factor for caries and obesity, which should be encouraged in the Libyan culture.
儿童龋齿和肥胖是公共卫生关注的问题。尽管多年来一直在研究这两种非传染性疾病之间的关系，但结果仍存在争议。本文旨在探讨生活在班加西受战争影响环境中的 12 岁学龄儿童的龋齿与肥胖之间的关系。
对 2017 年班加西武装冲突期间 12 岁学龄儿童的横断面研究进行二次分析，以确定该市儿童龋齿的患病率。为分析提取的数据包括参与者的社会人口统计学信息（性别、母亲教育程度和学校类型）、龋齿经历（DMFT 指数）和人体测量学指标（身高厘米、体重公斤、BMI 和 BMI 的 Z 分数）。根据龋齿经历比较了人体测量学指标。建立线性回归模型，以确定身体质量指数和 Z 分数作为因变量，龋齿作为解释变量，以及协变量（性别、母亲教育程度和学校类型）之间的关联。计算β系数（β）和 95%置信区间。所有统计检验均在 p≤0.05 时进行。
共有 782 名儿童，平均（SD）BMI 为 20.7 SD5.09，平均 z（SD）分数为 0.56 SD1.51。此外，159 名（20%）儿童患有肥胖症。龋齿与人体测量学指标之间未观察到显著关联。然而，私立学校的儿童（p≤0.001***）、女性（p≤0.001***)和自我报告经常饮用含糖饮料的儿童（p≤0.001***）的 BMI 较高。
本研究表明，龋齿与人体测量学指标之间没有显著关联。然而，研究结果支持了将减少糖摄入量作为龋齿和肥胖的共同危险因素的观点，这在利比亚文化中应该得到鼓励。
