Can Healthy Eating Index Be a Predictor for Early Childhood Caries in Indian Children

H V N Sai Krishna; C H Sravan Kumar; Appam Sai Krishna; Sri Rama Chandra Murthy Bandarii; Laxman Garine; Sai Kiran Yellavula

doi:10.4103/jpbs.jpbs_151_21

Can Healthy Eating Index Be a Predictor for Early Childhood Caries in Indian Children

J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2021 Nov;13(Suppl 2):S1033-S1036. doi: 10.4103/jpbs.jpbs_151_21. Epub 2021 Nov 10.

Authors

H V N Sai Krishna¹, C H Sravan Kumar², Appam Sai Krishna¹, Sri Rama Chandra Murthy Bandarii³, Laxman Garine⁴, Sai Kiran Yellavula⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health Dentistry, SB Patil Institute for Dental Sciences and Research, Bidar, Karnataka, India.
² Department of Periodontics, Sri Sai College of Dental Surgery, Vikarabad, Telangana, India.
³ Department of Health Care Administration, Epidemiology and Maternal Child Health, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
⁴ Department of Health Care Administration, Conestoga College, Kitchener, ON, Canada.

Abstract

Objective: To assess whether Healthy Eating Index (HEI) can predict Error correction code (ECC) in children of 3-6 year old.

Materials and methods: Our sample included 350 3-6 year old children attending outpatient department of Pedodontia. Caries score was assessed using decayed, missing, and filled teeth index and HEI was used to evaluate the diet quality.

Results: About 65.9% of the children who were breast feeding and bottle feeding at night had higher S-ECC and it was statistically significant (P = 0.001).

Conclusion: HEI scores were inversely related to caries severity, i.e. HEI score was significantly higher in simple ECC (57.4) and lesser in S-ECC (53.2).

Keywords: Diet; early childhood caries; healthy eating index; severe early childhood caries.