ArticleCommunity dentistry and oral epidemiology2026
Pathways Linking Socioeconomic Circumstances to Childhood Dental Caries: The Mediating Role of Parenting and Oral Health Behaviours Before and After Childsmile Implementation.
Article in Community dentistry and oral epidemiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Pathways Linking Socioeconomic Circumstances to Childhood Dental Caries: The Mediating Role of Parenting and Oral Health Behaviours Before and After Childsmile Implementation.Community dentistry and oral epidemiology · 2026Article
- Comments on: "The relationship between parental mental health and early childhood caries: a meta-analysis and systematic review".BDJ open · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo determine the extent that parenting styles and oral health behaviours mediate the relationship between socioeconomic circumstances (SEC) and childhood dental caries experience: pre-/post-national roll-out in 2011 of Childsmile, the child oral health improvement programme for Scotland.
methodsA longitudinal design linked 2798 participants from Birth Cohort-1 (following from age 10 months in 2005/06 to age 5 years in 2009/10) and 3015 from Birth Cohort-2 (following from age 10 months in 2011 to age 5 years in 2015) of the Growing Up in Scotland study with caries experience at age five from the National Dental Inspection Programme. Two Structural Equation Models (Birth Cohort-1 and 2) tested an a priori framework to explain the social gradient (SEC: Income Poverty, Area-based Deprivation, Household Education, Household Employment) in caries experience, considering proximal behaviours (toothbrushing, cariogenic diet, regular dental attendance) before introducing validated parenting styles (Parental Responsiveness/Demandingness).
resultsModels for both the pre-/post-Childsmile cohorts illustrated similar pathways. Dental attendance and parenting had no direct effect on caries experience. Responsiveness partially mediated the SEC-toothbrushing relationship, while demandingness partially mediated the SEC-diet relationship. Cariogenic diet directly increased caries experience prevalence (β = 0.33/0.24), while increased toothbrushing persistently decreased caries (β = -0.18/-0.13). Total mediated effect of SEC decreased from 58.8% to 39.1%, with the largest relative decrease being directly via toothbrushing (9.5%/4.0%). The effect mediated through parenting pathways remained minimal (4.8%/3.5%).
conclusionsPathways between SEC and childhood caries were unchanged after Childsmile roll-out, with minimal effects from parenting styles. The diminishing SEC effects via toothbrushing may be positively attributed to Childsmile interventions. The persistent unexplained effect of SEC on caries experience highlights the need for equity-focused structural approaches that address broader socioeconomic inequalities.
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