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Maintaining Traditions: A Qualitative Study of Early Childhood Caries Risk and Protective Factors in an Indigenous Community

In lower middle-income economies (LMIE), the nutrition transition from traditional diets to sugary foods and beverages has contributed to widespread early childhood dental caries. This qualitative study explores perceived risk and protective factors, and overall experiences of early childhood nutrit...

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Autores principales: Levin, Ana, Sokal-Gutierrez, Karen, Hargrave, Anita, Funsch, Elizabeth, Hoeft, Kristin S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5580610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28800116
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080907
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author Levin, Ana
Sokal-Gutierrez, Karen
Hargrave, Anita
Funsch, Elizabeth
Hoeft, Kristin S.
author_facet Levin, Ana
Sokal-Gutierrez, Karen
Hargrave, Anita
Funsch, Elizabeth
Hoeft, Kristin S.
author_sort Levin, Ana
collection PubMed
description In lower middle-income economies (LMIE), the nutrition transition from traditional diets to sugary foods and beverages has contributed to widespread early childhood dental caries. This qualitative study explores perceived risk and protective factors, and overall experiences of early childhood nutrition and oral health in indigenous Ecuadorian families participating in a community-based oral health and nutrition intervention. Dental exams of 698 children age 6 months through 6 years determined each child’s caries burden. A convenience sample of 18 “outlier” families was identified: low-caries children with ≤2 carious teeth vs. high-caries children with ≥10 carious teeth. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with parents/caregivers explored the child’s diet, dental habits, and family factors related to nutrition and oral health. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed using grounded theory. In the high-caries families, proximity to highway and stores, consumption of processed-food, and low parental monitoring of child behavior were identified as risk factors for ECC (early childhood caries). In the low-caries families, protective factors included harvesting and consuming food from the family farm, remote geography, and greater parental monitoring of child behavior. The study results suggest that maintaining traditional family farms and authoritative parenting to avoid processed foods/drinks and ensure tooth brushing could improve early childhood nutrition and oral health.
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spelling pubmed-55806102017-09-05 Maintaining Traditions: A Qualitative Study of Early Childhood Caries Risk and Protective Factors in an Indigenous Community Levin, Ana Sokal-Gutierrez, Karen Hargrave, Anita Funsch, Elizabeth Hoeft, Kristin S. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In lower middle-income economies (LMIE), the nutrition transition from traditional diets to sugary foods and beverages has contributed to widespread early childhood dental caries. This qualitative study explores perceived risk and protective factors, and overall experiences of early childhood nutrition and oral health in indigenous Ecuadorian families participating in a community-based oral health and nutrition intervention. Dental exams of 698 children age 6 months through 6 years determined each child’s caries burden. A convenience sample of 18 “outlier” families was identified: low-caries children with ≤2 carious teeth vs. high-caries children with ≥10 carious teeth. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with parents/caregivers explored the child’s diet, dental habits, and family factors related to nutrition and oral health. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed using grounded theory. In the high-caries families, proximity to highway and stores, consumption of processed-food, and low parental monitoring of child behavior were identified as risk factors for ECC (early childhood caries). In the low-caries families, protective factors included harvesting and consuming food from the family farm, remote geography, and greater parental monitoring of child behavior. The study results suggest that maintaining traditional family farms and authoritative parenting to avoid processed foods/drinks and ensure tooth brushing could improve early childhood nutrition and oral health. MDPI 2017-08-11 2017-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5580610/ /pubmed/28800116 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080907 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Levin, Ana
Sokal-Gutierrez, Karen
Hargrave, Anita
Funsch, Elizabeth
Hoeft, Kristin S.
Maintaining Traditions: A Qualitative Study of Early Childhood Caries Risk and Protective Factors in an Indigenous Community
title Maintaining Traditions: A Qualitative Study of Early Childhood Caries Risk and Protective Factors in an Indigenous Community
title_full Maintaining Traditions: A Qualitative Study of Early Childhood Caries Risk and Protective Factors in an Indigenous Community
title_fullStr Maintaining Traditions: A Qualitative Study of Early Childhood Caries Risk and Protective Factors in an Indigenous Community
title_full_unstemmed Maintaining Traditions: A Qualitative Study of Early Childhood Caries Risk and Protective Factors in an Indigenous Community
title_short Maintaining Traditions: A Qualitative Study of Early Childhood Caries Risk and Protective Factors in an Indigenous Community
title_sort maintaining traditions: a qualitative study of early childhood caries risk and protective factors in an indigenous community
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5580610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28800116
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080907
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