Prospective association between maternal bonding disorders and child toothbrushing frequency: A cross-sectional study
Shinobu Tsuchiya1, Masahiro Tsuchiya2, Haruki Momma3
1Department of Orthodontics and Speech Therapy for Craniofacial Anomalies, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Japan.
Background:
Daily toothbrushing prevents early childhood caries, but reinforcement depends on facilitative parenting behaviours. Mother-to-infant bonding, the maternal affection towards the infant, is an environmental factor that strongly influences parenting.
Aim:
This study examined the association between maternal bonding and children's daily toothbrushing frequency.
Design:
The sample consisted of 83 954 mother-infant pairs at two years postpartum, derived from the initial sample of JECS (cohort study), which included 104 062 foetuses. Maternal bonding disorders were assessed using the Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale (MIBS). After multiple imputation for missing data, a multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted with adjustments for several maternal (eg, age at delivery) and child-related (eg, self-performed toothbrushing) variables.
Results:
The odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for the association of maternal bonding disorders with the low (once per day) and the very low child toothbrushing frequency (<1 per day) was 1.12 (1.07-1.17) and 1.23 (0.91-1.66), respectively, after covariate adjustments. Furthermore, the univariate general linear model showed that the mean MIBS scores significantly decreased as the daily child toothbrushing frequency increased.
Conclusions:
The prevalence of maternal bonding disorders at one year postpartum was prospectively associated with a lower frequency of child toothbrushing at two years of age.
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