Dental caries and associated factors among Chinese children and adolescents: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Dental caries is a common disease under the action of many factors. Dental caries may occur in all age groups, among which children and adolescents are at high risk of dental caries. Early identification of the risk factors of dental caries is very important for clinical staff to prevent and intervene as soon as possible and reduce the incidence of dental caries. Although Chinese scholars have studied and summarized the risk factors of dental caries in children and adolescents, the conclusions are different. Therefore, in this study, meta-analysis was used to summarize the risk factors of dental caries in Chinese children and adolescents, and to explore the characteristics of high-risk groups of dental caries, so as to provide reference for early detection and prevention of dental caries. METHODS: Medical specialty databases like PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China Biology Medicine Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Science and Technology Journal Database, and Wanfang Database were consistently and exhaustively searched. According to the method of evidence-based medicine, the inclusion and exclusion criteria were established, and the meta-analysis of all eligible research results was carried out by using Review Manager 5.3 software. RESULTS: We will disseminate the findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis via publications in peer-reviewed journals. CONCLUSIONS: Our study was carried out to estimate the pooled prevalence of dental caries and its associated factors among Chinese children and adolescents. OSF REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/RA9D6.