Study on the factors affecting dental caries of preschool children. - Study focused on preschool children in province, Chugcheongnam-do -

학령전기 아동의 치아우식증 발생에 영향을 미치는 요인 조사 - 충남 일부지역 아동을 중심으로 -

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore relationship among dft index, diet and oral health behavior, parental awareness in oral health care and social status. Methods: This study was conducted from 8 January, 2009 to 11 June, 2009 in Asan city and Seosan city in Chungnam area. 4 kindergratens, 3 preschools and 1 children language academy were randomly selected to research on dft index, diet and oral health behavior. cross-sectional study conducted among 561 valid samples out of 641 samples collected using the survey was and then followed by oral examination. Throughout the research, numerus SPSS 15.0 statistical techniques, T-test and ANOVA and Spearman correlation coefficients were used for analysis. Results: Key results of the study are as follows: Age was found to be statistically very significant to dft index(p=0.036). Age of mother, especially between 30 to 49, was found to be statistically significant to dft index rate(p=0.001). Occupation of father was also found to be statistically significant to dft index(p=0.036). High parental awareness in oral health care led to low dft index rate, which also was found to be statistically significant(p=0.036). Conclusions: In conclusion, as Spearman correlation coefficient demonstrates, occupation of father affects most on long-term healthy oral behavior followed by parental awareness in oral health care and age of mother.