ArticlePublic health nutrition2023
Food insecurity is associated with self-reported oral health in school-age Ecuadorian children and is mediated by dietary and non-dietary factors.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Food Insecurity Among Post-Secondary Students in High Income Countries: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Current nutrition reports · 2025Pooled it
- Indigenous-non-Indigenous inequalities in oral health prevention among children and adolescents in Ecuador: a cross-sectional study.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Household food insecurity and its impact on child and adolescent health outcomes in Western high-income countries: a rapid review of mechanisms and associations.Public health nutrition · 2025Review
- Food Insecurity and Women's Choice of Reversible Contraceptives: Differential Effects by Maternal Age.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Household food insecurity and physical activity behaviour in Ecuadorian children and adolescents: findings from the Ecuador 2018 National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT-2018).Public health nutrition · 2024Article
- Factors increasing the risk for food addiction in Ecuadorian students.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
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2 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
objectiveThe main objective was to investigate the association of household food insecurity (HFI) with child oral health. A secondary objective was to explore potential dietary and non-dietary mediators of the HFI-child oral health relationship.
designCross-sectional data from the nationally representative Ecuadorian National Health and Nutrition Survey (2018) were analysed. The data included self-reported child oral health, HFI (Food Insecurity Experience Scale), diet (FFQ) and oral care behaviours (toothbrushing frequency, toothpaste use). The association of HFI with the reported number of oral health problems was examined with stereotype logistic regression. Parallel mediation analysis was used to explore potential dietary (highly fermentable carbohydrate foods, plain water) and non-dietary (toothbrushing) mediators of the HFI-oral health relationship. Bias-corrected standard errors and 95 % CI were obtained using non-parametric bootstrapping (10 000 repetitions). Effect size was measured by percent mediation (P
settingEcuador.
participants5-17-year-old children (
resultsHFI affected 23 % of child households. 38·5 % of children have at least one oral health problem. HFI was associated with a greater number of oral health problems: 1-2 problems (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1·37; 95 % CI (1·15, 1·58);
conclusionsHFI was associated with poorer child oral health. The HFI-oral health relationship was partially mediated by dietary and non-dietary factors. Longitudinal studies are needed to replicate our findings and investigate the role of other potential mediators.
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