Interview or questionnaire? A comparison based on the relationship between caries and dietary habits in...

The aim was to select a method for gaining correct past history data about dietary habits by studying how caries varied in relation to dietary habits. Therefore, an interview was used in one group of preschoolchildren and a questionnaire in another group. Ninety-three 4-year-old children were included and divided by lot into two groups. The groups were comparable concerning dmfs, gingival status and oral hygiene. The parents were either interviewed or filled in a questionnaire about the children's dietary habits. The interview contained the same questions as the questionnaire and was standardized with the instructions for filling in the questionnaire, which concentrated on frequency of eating different foods. An average frequency of cariologically unsuitable eating of food per day was calculated for each child. Each group was distributed over frequency classes: less than 2, greater than or equal to 2 less than 5 and greater than or equal to 5 unsuitable food intakes per day, and the mean caries value was calculated for each class. The amount of caries increased in a logical way with increasing frequency of unsuitable eating in the interview group, but not in the questionnaire group. It might therefore be concluded, for groups of preschooldchildren, that the interview technique gives more relevant information than the questionnaire technique.