A cohort of 2037 first year elementary school children was established in 1978 and examined annually on two other occasions to study the epidemiology of dental caries. Data on risk factors were collected from the parents through a questionnaire at the same time as the last two dental examinations. Some information on risk factors was also collected from the child at the time of dental examination. Prevalence of caries initially was high and the evolution of prevalence indices over the 24 month period is described. The incidence of caries for deciduous and permanent dentition is given by the relative increment of decay among teeth at risk at the beginning of the interval and those becoming at risk during the interval. Treatment level initially was low but increased between the second and third year of observation. Oral hygiene and nutritional habits did not conform to generally acceptable good preventive practices. Moreover, these behaviors are not stable. Whether by univariate (analyses of variance) or multivariate (multiple linear regression) analyses, certain factors consistently show an influence on dental caries. They are: father's schooling, presence of prostheses in parents, number of visits to the dentist, voluntary consumption of fluoride, number of years of this fluoride consumption, brushing, consumption of soft drinks, candies and vegetables, and eating before bed. These findings lend credence to the belief that despite continuing controversies about risk factors for dental caries, programs aimed at modifying behavior pertaining to the aforementioned factors are justified.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.68643 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Infante-Rivard, Claire. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Epidemiology and Health) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000157087, proquestno: AAINK60913, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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