Maternal Control of the Child's Feeding, Child's Eating Behavior and Early Childhood Caries in Preschoolers

March 21, 2025 updated by: Mariam Ayman Amin Sharaf, Ain Shams University

Association Between Maternal Control of the Child's Feeding, Child's Eating Behavior and Early Childhood Caries in Preschoolers: A Cross-Sectional Study

Dental caries in children is considered one of the most prevalent oral diseases of this age group, leading to significant manifestations presenting as pain, interference with feeding, higher risk of developing dental caries in both, primary and permanent dentition. Dietary practices, along with the presence of bacteria in the oral cavity have been shown to be inextricably linked to the presence of dental caries. The latest evidence has demonstrated that certain types of eating behavioral traits in children could influence the development of dental caries.

Study Overview

Status

Enrolling by invitation

Conditions

Detailed Description

Dental caries in children is considered one of the most prevalent oral diseases of this age group, leading to significant manifestations presenting as pain, interference with feeding, higher risk of developing dental caries in both, primary and permanent dentition, as well as worse repercussions on the permanent successors. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) global oral health status report of 2022, 514 million children -worldwide- have been affected by dental caries in their primary teeth. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) refers to this type of dental caries in primary teeth as "early childhood caries" and defines it as the existence of one or more decayed, missed, or filled tooth surface due to dental caries in children less than six years of age.

It has been studied in depth that dental caries is a multi-factorial disease of a complex nature with behavioral, as well as social factors playing a vital role in its etiology. Dietary practices, along with the presence of bacteria in the oral cavity have been shown to be inextricably linked to the presence of dental caries. The latest evidence has demonstrated that certain types of eating behavioral traits in children could, in a way, influence the development of dental caries.

Moreover, family structure could be an additional, recently confirmed factor to contemplate in regards to the etiology of dental caries. For example, it has been shown that parents, as the primary caregiver of the child, could influence the eating habits of their preschool children. This could occur through parents choosing the food they consider "appropriate" for their child, modelling, creating specific patterns of feeding for the child and adopting particular food practices to reinforce eating behaviors in their children.

Several questionnaires that assess the child's eating behavioral traits as well as parental control of the child's feeding have been found in the literature, among which, the most frequently used are the "Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ)" and the "Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ)". Both questionnaires have been shown to have good psychometric properties and both have been validated and translated to Arabic language in recent studies.

Research suggests that evidence on the relationship between children's eating behavior and dental caries is scanty. Additionally, the association between parental control in child feeding and dental caries has been investigated in a limited number of studies. To our knowledge, to date, this type of research has not been previously conducted in Egypt. On that account, this study has been developed with the aim of investigating the relationship between parental control in child feeding, child's eating behavior and dental caries in a number of Egyptian preschool children.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

208

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Egypt
      • Cairo, Egypt
        • Faculty of Dentistry, Ain Shams University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Mother-child pairs attending the Faculty of Dentistry, Ain Shams University will be recruited and enrolled in the current study

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Egyptian mothers and preschool children pairs aging from 3-5 years old, and currently residing in Egypt.
  • Mothers who live with the child in the same household

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Participants who refuse to consent to participate in the study.
  • Mothers with any medical health condition (physical or mental) that interferes with responding to the questionnaires.
  • Children with special health care needs (mental or physical).
  • Medically compromised children (Diabetic, renal problems, liver problems, respiratory problems…etc.) as their condition or the medications they consume might interfere with their oral health status.
  • Children whose siblings have previously participated in the study.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Early childhood caries
Time Frame: January 2025 - June 2026
Early childhood caries will be assessed using decayed, missing, and filled tooth index (dmft)
January 2025 - June 2026

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Oral hygiene condition (oral debris)
Time Frame: January 2025 - March 2027

The Debris Index-Simplified (DI-S), a component of the Oral Hygiene Index-Simplified (OHI-S) by Silness and Loe will be used to evaluate the oral hygiene of children.

- Six index teeth will be assessed to obtain a final score: The labial/buccal surface of the primary maxillary right central incisor, primary mandibular left central incisor, primary maxillary right second molar, and primary maxillary left second molar. Whereas the lingual surface of the primary mandibular left and right second molar will be evaluated.
January 2025 - March 2027

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Ain Shams University

Investigators

  • Study Director: Amira Badran, PhD, Ain Shams University
  • Study Director: Nagwa Khattab, PhD, Ain Shams University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 1, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 30, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 21, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 21, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

March 27, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 27, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 21, 2025

Last Verified

March 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1315

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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