Caregivers and oral health of preschool children: the importance of knowledge on oral health in caregivers at community homes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Community parents as caregivers of preschoolers are a crucial factor in promoting general and oral health habits. The objective of this study was to determine the oral health knowledge of community parents working as caregivers in family welfare homes and explore their relationship with the oral health of preschoolers under their care. A non-experimental (cross-sectional) study was conducted, which analyzed the 2009–2012 Valle del Cauca’s oral health database. This database contains a survey of 250 community mothers from 40 municipalities who cared for 7221 preschoolers. A total of 982 clinical records of preschoolers were analyzed. The average age of the mothers was 41.4 years (± 10); 18% had university training. The average age of preschoolers who had been clinically evaluated was 3.5 (± 0.6); 52% were affiliated to the contributory and special Colombian social security regime, and 36.6% were poor populations affiliated to the subsidized regime. Assessment of the oral-health-related knowledge of caregivers revealed that 22.8% had good oral health knowledge. 18.4% reported consumption patterns related to a high-risk cariogenic diet. The prevalence of decay in preschoolers was 45.6%. This study found that children had better oral health conditions in community homes where caregivers presented better oral health knowledge. This reinforces the hypothesis that the greater the knowledge from caregivers on the topic, the lower the prevalence of pathologies such as caries and gingivitis in preschoolers under their care.