| 2917 The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and Dental Caries Among Children | ||
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M. NUNN, Boston University, Goldman School of Dental Medicine, MA, USA, E. KRALL, Boston University, MA, USA, and R. GARCIA, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston University, MA, USA Objectives: To investigate the relationship of the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) to caries experiences in children (ages 2 to <17). Methods: Data from NHANES III was used to investigate the association of individual and total HEI's to dfs and dft in primary teeth, DFS and DFT in permanent teeth, and caries experience in primary teeth alone, permanent teeth alone, and all teeth present. Weighting was used to obtain population-based estimates for all analyses. Spearman's correlation was used to test for associations between all HEI's with dfs and dft in primary teeth, DFS and DFT in permanent teeth, and dfs+DFS and dft+DFT for all teeth present. Mann-Whitney U test was used to test for differences in each HEI by caries experiences. Results: Based on Spearman's correlation, significant inverse associations were found between fruit, grain, sodium, and total HEI's with dfs and dft for deciduous teeth (p<0.01). Similarly, significant inverse associations were found between dairy, cholesterol, fruit, grain, sodium, variety, and total HEI's with DFS and DFT for permanent teeth. In contrast, a significant positive association was found between meat HEI and both DFS and DFT for permanent teeth. Based on Mann-Whitney U tests, children without deciduous caries experience had significantly higher fruit, grain, sodium, and total HEI's than children with deciduous caries experience while children without permanent caries experience had significantly higher dairy, cholesterol, fruit, grain, sodium, variety, and total HEI's than children with permanent caries experience (p<0.01). In contrast, children with permanent caries experience had a significantly higher HEI for meat (p<0.01) compared to children without permanent caries experience. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that certain healthy eating habits are significantly associated with a reduction in the prevalence and severity of dental caries among children. Supported by NIDCR Grant U54 DE014264-039002. | ||
| Seq #309 - Keynote Address and Nutrition, Oral Health, and Systemic Disease 8:00 AM-9:30 AM, Saturday, 13 March 2004 Hawaii Convention Center 306-B | ||
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