Underweight and early childhood caries among young children in rural Cambodia: a pilot study

To investigate the association between underweight and early childhood caries (ECC) among children aged one to three years in rural Cambodia.

A total of 200 Cambodian children aged one to three years at several villages in Kampong Cham province participated in this study. The children whose Z scores were below two and three standard deviations were considered as moderately-underweight and severely-underweight. Children whose mid-upper arm circumstance (MUAC) was below 12.5 cm, were regarded as having malnutrition. ECC was recorded following the WHO guidelines. Associated factors were obtained through interviews with caregivers.

33.5% and 7.0% of the children were identified as being moderately-underweight and severely-underweight, respectively. The prevalence of ECC was 61.5%. ECC was significantly associated with children being moderately-underweight (P < 0.05). The prevalence of ECC was higher prevalence of those who with severely-underweight, although significant differences were not observed (P = 0.054). Logistic regressions showed that those with low birth weight (OR = 2.57; 95% CI = 1.03-6.40) and malnutrition (OR = 4.71; 95% CI = 1.08-20.62) were likely to be moderately-underweight and severely-underweight, whereas those who with ECC had more moderately-underweight, although it was not significant (OR = 2.21; 95% CI = 0.97-5.00). Those with low birth weight (OR = 10.68; 95% CI = 2.95-38.65) and ECC (OR = 6.67; 95% CI = 1.02-43.61) were likely to be severely-underweight.

The findings of this study suggest that low birth weight, malnutrition and ECC were associated factors of underweight in this population.