Untreated early childhood caries: the role of parental eating behavior.

The aim of the present study was to analyze the association between parental eating behavior and untreated early childhood caries (ECC). A cross-sectional study was conducted with a representative sample of 432 parent-child dyads with children aged 18 to 36 months, at Municipal Child Education Centers in São José dos Pinhais, Brazil. The parents answered a questionnaire addressing demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and the children were examined for dental caries (modified dmft index) by a single examiner (kappa = 0.80). A six-item questionnaire was administered addressing parental food consumption, parental control of the child's food consumption, and parental offering of foods to the child. Three items were considered indicative of positive behavior, and three, of negative behavior. Univariate and multivariate Poisson regression analyses with robust variance were used for the data analysis (α = 0.05). The prevalence of untreated ECC was 20.3% (95%CI: 16.7-24.4). In the multiple regression model adjusted for the child's age and the parent's schooling, negative parental behavior was associated with a greater frequency of untreated ECC (PRa = 1.213; 95%CI:1.032-1.427, p = 0.019), but lost its significance when adjusted by positive parental behavior (PRa = 1.156; 95%CI: 0.983-1.358, p = 0.079). Based on the present findings, positive parental eating behaviors are capable of minimizing the impact of negative parental behaviors on the prevalence of untreated early childhood caries.