Absenteeism among preschool children due to oral problems

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 836 children randomly selected from public and private preschools in the city of Campina Grande, Brazil. Parents/guardians answered the Brazilian version of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale, which asked about to the whole life of the child. The item “missed preschool, daycare or school” was the dependent variable. A questionnaire addressing socio-demographic variables (child’s sex, child’s age, mother’s schooling and household income) was administered to parents/guardians. Clinical exams for dental caries, traumatic dental injury (TDI) and malocclusion were performed by three dentists who had previously undergone training and calibration exercises (Kappa: 0.85–0.90). Descriptive, analytical statistics were conducted, followed by logistic regression for complex samples (α = 5 %).

The prevalence rate of preschool absenteeism due to oral problems was 8.4 %. Cavitated dental caries was the most common oral health problem (47.9 %), followed by malocclusion (34.8 %) and TDI (33.7 %). Cavitated dental caries was the only variable to remain associated with preschool absenteeism in the final model (p = 0.012; OR = 2.872; 95 % CI: 1.266–6.514).