ArticleJournal of the West African College of Surgeons
DENTAL CARIES AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN LAGOS, NIGERIA - A PRELIMINARY SURVEY.
Article in Journal of the West African College of Surgeons. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence and associated risk indicators of early childhood caries in Nigeria: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC oral health · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence of dental caries in the primary, mixed and permanent dentitions in Nigeria: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence of Early Childhood Caries in Africa: A Systematic Review.International journal of paediatric dentistry · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence of dental caries in the permanent dentition amongst 12-year-olds in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC oral health · 2022Pooled it
- Individual, Family, and Socioeconomic Contributors to Dental Caries in Children from Low- and Middle-Income Countries.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Risk indicators for dental caries among preschoolers, school children/adolescents and adults in Nigeria: a scoping review.BMC oral health · 2025Article
- Oral pathology and overweight among pupils in government primary schools in Cameroon: a cross-sectional study.BMC oral health · 2023Article
- Prevalence of dental caries and relation with nutritional status among school-age children in resource limited setting of southern Ethiopia.BMC oral health · 2023Article
- Risk indicators for dental caries, and gingivitis among 6-11-year-old children in Nigeria: a household-based survey.BMC oral health · 2022Article
- Age-specific associations with dental caries in HIV-infected, exposed but uninfected and HIV-unexposed uninfected children in Nigeria.BMC oral health · 2022Article
- Dental Caries Severity and Nutritional Status of Nigerian Preschool Children.JDR clinical and translational research · 2022Article
- Assessing the Association Between Nutritional Status, Caries, and Gingivitis in Schoolchildren: A Cross-Sectional Study.Global pediatric health · 2021Article
- Advancing oral health policy for mandatory dental screening before admission into public primary and secondary schools in Lagos, Nigeria.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2020Article
- Use of teachers as agents of oral health education: Intervention study among public secondary school pupils in Lagos.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2020Article
- Effect of health education intervention conducted by Primary Health Care workers on oral health knowledge and practices of nursing mothers in Lagos State.Journal of public health in Africa · 2018Article
- Impact of dental caries and nutritional status on oral health related quality of life in young Indian adolescents.Journal of oral biology and craniofacial researchArticle
- A Preexperimental Study to Assess the Impact of an Interdisciplinary Educational Intervention on Nurses' Knowledge of Perinatal and Infant Oral Health Care.Journal of International Society of Preventive & Community DentistryArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundStudies have highlighted the direct impact of caries on the nutritional status of children; few studies in Nigeria have examined the association between the two parameters.
aimTo determine the association between caries and the nutritional status of in-school children. Design of the study: A cross-sectional survey.
settingTwo private and two public schools in Lagos state. METHODOLOGY: A total of 973 children were assessed for dental caries using the WHO diagnostic criteria. Nutritional status was assessed using the weight for age, height for age and weight for height parameters. Data entry and analysis were done using WHO Epi 3.5 nutritstat and SPSS version 20.0 software. The t test, ANOVA, chi squared test, correlation statistics and logistic regression analysis were used as tests of association. A p-value of 0.05 or less was considered statistically significant.
resultsCaries prevalence was 21.7% while mean Decayed Missing and Filled Teeth (DMFT) index score was 0.48 (±1.135). Overall 13.9% of the children studied were stunted, 13.6% were wasted and 10.9% were underweight. The caries prevalence was significantly higher in children with normal weight than in overweight or underweight children (p=0.009). Children who were wasted (p=0.111) and those who were underweight (p=0.659) had a higher mean DMFT score, but the relationship was not statistically significant. The DMFT score was negatively correlated with weight for age but positively correlated with height for age and weight for height. The relationships were also not statistically significant.
conclusionOur results showed that underweight children had a higher risk of developing dental caries. Although both under weight and wasted children had higher mean DMFT scores, there was no significant association between dental caries and nutritional status.
Indexed as
Identifiers
28856122PMC5555729W3010528016What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.