SynthesisBrazilian oral research2025
Sugar consumption and early childhood caries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies.
Synthesis in Brazilian oral research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The oral und systemic health risks of sugar consumption: an umbrella review.Clinical oral investigations · 2026Pooled it
- Parental Cognition Regarding Children's Sugar Consumption and Its Implications for Dental Caries Prevention: A Systematic Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aim of this systematic literature review and meta-analysis was to answer the following research question: "Is sugar consumption associated with early childhood caries among children under 6 years of age in cohort studies?". The following electronic databases were accessed from December 2020 to May 2025 to identify the existing literature: Bireme, Pubmed/Medline, Scielo, Scopus, and Web of Science. Studies considered eligible for this systematic review were those that investigated sugar consumption as the main exposure and early childhood caries (ECC) as the outcome. Study selection and data extraction were performed independently by two reviewers. Study quality was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist for cohort studies scale. The search strategy retrieved 718 studies. After title and abstract screening, 59 were selected for full-text review, leading to the inclusion of 17 original studies in this systematic review. Finally, nine studies provided sufficient data for a meta-analysis. The association between sugar consumption and ECC was consistent across most of the cohort studies included in this review, which reported that higher sugar consumption was associated with higher prevalence of dental caries. The pooled effect estimate from the meta-analysis yielded an OR of 1.59 and a 95% CI (1.50-1.68), indicating that children who consumed sugar in early childhood were 59% more likely to develop caries compared to those who did not consume sugar. The included studies had a low risk of bias. Our systematic review and meta-analysis confirmed the association between sugar consumption and ECC in longitudinal cohort studies.
Indexed as
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What 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.