Children with history of neonatal stunting may develop dental caries in first year of life

Stunting affects 155 million children worldwide, is an indicator of a child's overall well-being and can indicate social inequalities. Stunting implies a chronic limitation of a child's growth potential due to insufficient nutrient intake.

Children with neonatal growth retardation, defined as birth length <48cm, are at risk for chronic malnutrition that begins before birth and continues into infancy. A child's growth and development can be adversely affected by stunting, including oral health itself, and particularly the experience of dental caries.

Siska Yohana, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Universitas Padjadjaran, Jawa Barat, Indonesia, and colleagues aimed to analyze the experience of dental caries in stunting children with a history of neonatal stunting.

For this purpose, the researchers conducted a baseline and 1-year follow-up analysis of a cohort of stunted children in a potential stunting site in Bandung City. Annual data collection included mother interviews and children's dental and anthropometric examinations. Descriptive analysis was performed in SPSS.

Data recording was done on paper forms and was entered manually into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for later analysis using IBM SPSS. After assessment, descriptive statistics were generated before bivariate analysis. In the 1-year study, fifty-five children met the inclusion criteria and participated.

The researchers found that decay, missing, filling teeth (Dmft) was in the intermediate category (4.13) at baseline and fell into the high category (5.16) at 1-year follow-up, although the increase in caries remained in the low category.

The local survey revealed that dental caries experience begins in the first year of life and may become more severe in later life among hypoplastic children with a history of neonatal developmental delay. However, dental health behaviours, sociodemographic characteristics, and dietary habits are also effective in maintaining dental and oral health.

"Therefore, dental and oral health support measures should be linked to dental health education programs, particularly for those facing the dual burden of diet and dental and oral health," the researchers wrote. "Also, maintaining oral hygiene practices can be very important for dental health policymakers."

The limitation of the study is the lack of complementary data on risk factors for growth stunting, such as weight, height, maternal BMI, breastfeeding, frequency of infection, maternal education and other external factors.

Reference:

Yohana S, Indriyanti R, Suryanti N, Rahayuwati L, Juniarti N, Setiawan AS. Caries Experience among Children with History of Neonatal Stunting. Eur J Dent. 2023 Jul;17(3):687-692. doi: 10.1055/s-0042-1750775. Epub 2022 Sep 8. PMID: 36075267; PMCID: PMC10569887.