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An online survey of oral health behaviours and impact on young children and families in Wales

British Dental Journal (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Introduction Studies outside Wales have consistently reported reduced quality of life as measured by the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale. With relatively high levels of tooth decay in Wales as found through the regular dental surveys, it is important to understand different oral health-related behaviours and impact so that findings can inform oral health promotion in Wales.

Methods An oral health questionnaire was made available to volunteers registered with Health Wise Wales. Parents of children (2-6 years old) participated in the study. Frequency analyses were carried out to understand the oral health-related behaviours and regression analysis was carried out to understand the predictors of reported oral health impacts.

Results Overall reported oral health impact was low in this study. In total, 20% of parents reported that their child brushed their teeth less than twice a day and 23% reported toothbrushing without adult supervision. Drinking plain water twice a day or more was associated with good oral health in children.

Conclusion Overall, reported oral health impact was low, which is likely to be due to under-representation of study participants from the deprived areas in Wales. There is plenty of room for improvement in oral health-related behaviours.

Key points

  • Health Wise Wales (HWW), an online register of people in Wales who have volunteered to participate in research, provided access to a 'research ready' population for this study. The disadvantage of the HWW was that the register was not fully representative of the Welsh general population.

  • This paper provides an overview of oral health behaviours and reported impact on young children in Wales. Overall reported impact was low and 20% parents reported that their children brush their teeth less than twice a day.

  • Drinking plain water twice a day or more compared to drinking no water was a significant predictor of low oral health impact. Increased use of plain water by children to meet their hydration need may also indirectly help oral health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health Wales, Capital Quarter 2, Cardiff, CF10 4BZ, Wales, United Kingdom

    Anup J. Karki & Aideen Naughton

  2. Division of Population Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom

    Ulugbek Nurmatov & Alison Kemp

  3. Swansea University Medical School, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom

    Mark D. Atkinson

Authors
  1. Anup J. Karki
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  2. Ulugbek Nurmatov
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  3. Mark D. Atkinson
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  4. Aideen Naughton
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  5. Alison Kemp
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Contributions

Anup J. Karki, Ulugbek Nurmatov, Mark D. Atkinson, Aideen Naughton and Alison Kemp contributed to the study design and writing of this paper for publication. Mark Atkinson carried out the statistical analyses.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anup J. Karki.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

HWW received ethical approval from the Wales Research Ethics Committee (REC) 3 on 16 March 2015 (reference 15/WA/0076). Applications to use the HWW for oral health data collection was reviewed by a Scientific Steering Group and Patient and Public Involvement representatives to assess if the proposed project fits with the ethos of the HWW and is scientifically sound. Participants for this study consented to complete the oral health questionnaire. Separate ethical approval was not required.

The datasets for this study are not publicly available due to privacy and/or ethical restrictions in accessing data collected by Healthwise Wales. Oral health questionnaire data that support the findings of this study can be obtained through the corresponding author on a reasonable request.

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Karki, A., Nurmatov, U., Atkinson, M. et al. An online survey of oral health behaviours and impact on young children and families in Wales. Br Dent J (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-023-6230-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-023-6230-x

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