ArticleBMC oral health2025
Risk indicators for dental caries among preschoolers, school children/adolescents and adults in Nigeria: a scoping review.
Article in BMC oral health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prevalence and associated risk indicators of early childhood caries in Nigeria: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC oral health · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence and risk factors for early childhood caries in North Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC oral health · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence of dental caries and its associated factors among individuals aged 6-18 years attending Governorate hospitals in Jizan, KSA: a cross‑sectional study.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- Structural equation modeling to identify social and physical risk indicators of early childhood caries in suburban Nigerian population.Frontiers in oral health · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundIdentifying the dental caries risk factors helps plan interventions. This scoping review mapped the existing literature on dental caries risk indicators for children, adolescents, and adults in Nigeria. It elucidated the commonalities and differences in these populations' behavioral, biological, and social risk indicators, and identified the local government areas in Nigeria where information on dental caries risk indicators are missing.
methodsA search of the literature search was performed in July 2023 in PubMed, African Journal Online, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library [CENTRAL] using a combination of keywords related to dental caries, risk factors, early childhood, children, adults, and Nigeria. Only peer-reviewed full-length articles on risk factors for dental caries in Nigeria published in English were included. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the study's characteristics and risk indicators for dental caries. The risk indicators for dental caries were categorized into behavioral, biological, and social. Differences and commonalities of the identified behavioral, biological, and social risk indicators for the three populations were identified.
resultsAfter screening 570 studies, 27 publications for preschoolers, 37 for school children/adolescents, and 17 for adults met the inclusion criteria. For all groups, key social risk indicators were age, gender, socioeconomic, and educational status, biological risk indicators were anthropometric measurements and bacterial counts, and behavioral risks indicators were toothbrushing, snacking, and oral hygiene. Peculiar behavioral, biological, and social risk indicators were identified for each age group. Most studies are clustered in southern Nigeria. In addition, studies in preschoolers was skew to southwestern Nigeria, that of children/adolescents were skewed to Ife Central LGA in Osun State, while that for adults were skewed to Egor LGA in Edo State. Furthermore, participants recruitment was most diverse in Lagos State.
conclusionsThe shared risk indicators for dental caries can facilitate the development of overarching caries prevention program for the difference age groups in Nigeria. while the age specific risk indicators can inform the development of population specific interventions. This scoping review underscores the importance of a holistic, life course approach to dental caries risk management.
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