Association between maternal depression and early childhood caries in rural southern Brazil: a population-based...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between maternal depressive symptoms and Early Childhood Caries (ECC) in children residing in rural communities in southern Brazil.

A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted with 236 children aged 1-5 years and their mothers. Mothers answered the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) addressing depressive symptoms and a structured questionnaire investigating demographic, socioeconomic and behavioural characteristics. The mothers and children underwent oral health examinations using the WHO criteria (DMFT and dmft index, respectively). The outcome was the occurrence of ECC (dmft ≥ 1) and the main exposure was symptoms of maternal depression. Poisson regression with robust variance was used to estimate prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals adjusted for potential confounding variables.

Overall, 37.7% of the children had ECC and 21.5% of the mothers had symptoms of depression. The prevalence of ECC was significantly higher among children of mothers with depressive symptoms (52.0%) compared to those of mothers without symptoms (34.6%). The multivariate analysis showed that the likelihood of ECC was nearly 50% higher in children whose mothers presented depressive symptoms (PR = 1.46; 95% CI 1.04-2.05) compared to those with mothers without depressive symptoms.

The symptoms of maternal depression increased the likelihood of ECC in preschool children living in a rural area.