152 - The Correlation between BMI and Caries Prevalence in Pediatric Populations

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the potential link between Body Mass Index (BMI) percentile and dental caries prevalence in children ages 0 to 18, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2017–March 2020. It is hypothesized that higher BMI percentiles are correlated with an increased prevalence of dental caries due to shared risk factors such as diet, socioeconomic conditions, and lifestyle behaviors.

Methods: A retrospective analysis will be conducted using data from the NHANES 2017–2020 database. The primary outcome of interest is dental caries prevalence, measured using the Decayed, Missing, and Filled Teeth (DMFT) index for permanent teeth and the dmft index for primary teeth. The study will include 3,000 children randomly selected from the dataset. BMI percentiles will be categorized into underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese groups. Additional confounding variables, including demographics (age, gender, race, ethnicity, insurance status), dietary factors (total daily sugars and carbohydrates, breastfeeding status), oral hygiene practices (frequency of tooth brushing, time since last dental visit), and physical activity will be controlled for in the analysis. A random forest algorithm will be employed to identify significant predictors of dental caries, including BMI and other potential confounders.

Results: BMI had a small but significant negative association with caries prevalence. Specifically, for each unit increase in BMI, the odds of the outcome decreased by 1.56%. Thus, higher BMI is associated with a slightly lower likelihood of caries. Higher family poverty levels were linked to a 7.64% increase in the odds of having caries (p < 0.0001). Oral hygiene also played a role, with each additional time per day of brushing reducing the odds of having caries by 12.58% (p < 0.0001). Finally, higher total daily sugar intake was associated with a small increase in odds (0.37%, p = 0.001), and being born outside of the country increased the odds by 11.43% (p = 0.020). A Pearson correlation test found a significant positive association between BMI and sugar intake, but the effect was negligible.

Conclusions: Higher family poverty levels are associated with higher caries prevalence. Higher BMI is associated with lower caries prevalence. Individuals born outside of the USA experience greater caries prevalence than those born in the USA.