Dietary Factors Influencing the Caries Status of Adults in Karachi, Pakistan: Initial Findings

Ambrina Qureshi, Nilofer F. Safdar, Hina Qureshi, Yasser F. AlFawaz, Khold Al Ahdal, Sara Shabib, Khulud A. Al-Aali, Mustafa Naseem, Fahim Vohra and Tariq Abduljabbar
Additional contact information
Ambrina Qureshi: Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan
Nilofer F. Safdar: Nutritional Sciences, School of Public Health, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan
Hina Qureshi: Department of Pathology, The Kidney Center Postgraduate Institute, Karachi 74200, Pakistan
Yasser F. AlFawaz: Department of Restorative Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh 11545, Saudi Arabia
Khold Al Ahdal: Department of Restorative Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh 11545, Saudi Arabia
Sara Shabib: Department of Restorative Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh 11545, Saudi Arabia
Khulud A. Al-Aali: Department of Clinical Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11545, Saudi Arabia
Mustafa Naseem: Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Dow International Dental College (DIDC), Karachi 74200, Pakistan
Fahim Vohra: Department of Prosthetic Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh 11545, Saudi Arabia
Tariq Abduljabbar: Department of Prosthetic Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh 11545, Saudi Arabia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-11

Abstract: Objective: The objective was to identify the relationship between the dietary factors related to increases in the number of dental caries among an adult population group. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving adult patients and their accompanying person, aged 18 years and above ( n = 1730) visiting the dental outpatient department (OPD) of a public sector tertiary healthcare institute in Karachi, Pakistan. A 39-item Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) was administered to the patients, followed by a dental caries assessment using Radke’s WHO criteria. Caries assessment data were transformed into the DMFT Index (D = decayed, M = missing, F = filled teeth). Factor analysis (FA) was performed using Stata v. 11.0, followed by assessing the internal consistency of the FFQ. Multilogistic analysis was performed to explore the association between dental caries (cut-off = 5) and other independent variables, considering a p -value < 0.05 as significant. Results: The mean age of participants in the group was 32.65 ± 10.49 years. The number of female participants (934; 54%) was higher than male participants (796; 46%). Of the total, 951 (52%) participants were married. The internal consistency value for the FFQ, as measured by Cronbach’s alpha, was 0.80. In addition to age and gender, out of four dietary patterns, only “cereals” were found to be significantly ( p < 0.05) associated with increased DMFT. Conclusion: This study established that the high intake of cereals is a contributory factor to the high prevalence of dental caries among adults.

Keywords: dietary factors; dental caries; sugar; cereals; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/6980/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/6980/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:12:p:6980-:d:833226

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().