Analysis of Race and Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Factors, and Tooth Decay Among US Children

IMPORTANCE: While large oral health disparities remain by race and ethnicity among children, the associations of race, ethnicity, and mediating factors with oral health outcomes are poorly characterized. Identifying the pathways that explain these disparities would be critical to inform policies to effectively reduce them. OBJECTIVE: To measure racial and ethnic disparities in the risk of developing tooth decay and quantify relative contributions of factors mediating the observed disparities among US children. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This retrospective cohort study used electronic health records of US children from 2014 to 2020 to measure racial and ethnic disparities in the risk of tooth decay. Elastic net regularization was used to select variables to be included in the model among medical conditions, dental procedure types, and individual- and community-level socioeconomic factors. Data were analyzed from January 9 to April 28, 2023. EXPOSURES: Race and ethnicity of children. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The main outcome was diagnosis of tooth decay in either deciduous or permanent teeth, defined as at least 1 decayed, filled, or missing tooth due to caries. An Anderson-Gill model, a time-to-event model for recurrent tooth decay events with time-varying covariates, stratified by age groups (0-5, 6-10, and 11-18 years) was estimated. A nonlinear multiple additive regression tree–based mediation analysis quantified the relative contributions of factors underlying the observed racial and ethnic disparities. RESULTS: Among 61 083 children and adolescents aged 0 to 18 years at baseline (mean [SD] age, 9.9 [4.6] years; 30 773 [50.4%] female), 2654 Black individuals (4.3%), 11 213 Hispanic individuals (18.4%), 42 815 White individuals (70.1%), and 4401 individuals who identified as another race (eg, American Indian, Asian, and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander) (7.2%) were identified. Larger racial and ethnic disparities were observed among children aged 0 to 5 years compared with other age groups (Hispanic children: adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.47; 95% CI, 1.40-1.54; Black children: aHR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.19-1.42; other race children: aHR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.29-1.49), compared with White children. For children aged 6 to 10 years, higher risk of tooth decay was observed for Black children (aHR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.01-1.19) and Hispanic children (aHR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.07-1.18) compared with White children. For adolescents aged 11 to 18 years, a higher risk of tooth decay was observed only in Black adolescents (aHR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.06-1.30). A mediation analysis revealed that the association of race and ethnicity with time to first tooth decay became negligible, except for Hispanic and children of other race aged 0 to 5 years, suggesting that mediators explained most of the observed disparities. Insurance type explained the largest proportion of the disparity, ranging from 23.4% (95% CI, 19.8%-30.2%) to 78.9% (95% CI, 59.0%-114.1%), followed by dental procedures (receipt of topical fluoride and restorative procedures) and community-level factors (education attainment and Area Deprivation Index). CONCLUSIONS: In this retrospective cohort study, large proportions of disparities in time to first tooth decay associated with race and ethnicity were explained by insurance type and dental procedure types among children and adolescents. These findings can be applied to develop targeted strategies to reduce oral health disparities.