The effect of early childhood caries on the quality of life of children and their parents

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect the early childhood caries (ECC) has on quality of life (QOL) parameters of both children and their parents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, India. CLINICAL SETTING: The study consisted of 500 children–parent pairs. The study was performed in Manipal and Bhubaneswar (250 children–parent pairs in each group), fulfilling the inclusion requirements of healthy children aged between 3 and 6 years old and children having ECC. The two groups were equally divided as follows: Group I – 250 child–parent pairs (Bhubaneswar) and Group II – 250 child–parent pairs (Manipal and Udupi). INTERVENTIONS: This was a questionnaire-based study and the parents and their children were provided the questionnaires with various questions on QOL parameters. Questionnaires were validated in the respective local languages. RESULTS: The data collected were analyzed using the SPSS (version 10.0) package. For assessing the internal consistency of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alfa test was used. To find the comparison between groups, Chi square test and “t” test were used. CONCLUSIONS: Oral health has a definite effect on the QOL of children. The most affected parameters by ECC were consumption of food and sleep in children, which significantly influence the parents. The questionnaire had good internal consistency in both Kannada and Oriya versions.