Abstract

FIGUEIREDO, Márcia Cançado; RIBEIRO, Claudia Bernardete Sena; NORONHA, Marina Silveira  and  SILVA, Kátia Valença Correia Leandro da. Description of dietary patterns and oral health condition of children from a city in southern of Brazil. RFO UPF [online]. 2014, vol.19, n.3, pp. 329-336. ISSN 1413-4012.

Introduction: to provide effective actions in pursuit of oral health, access to health care should be singled out according to the needs of the population, it must be planned from surveys and studies focusing on the profile of the community, and serving as a framework for planning future actions. Objectives: to describe oral health conditions and the dietary pattern of children, and correlate them with the socioeconomic profile of families enrolled in the Family Health Strategy of Augusta Meneguine in the city of Viamão, RS, Brazil. Methodology: this is an observational longitudinal study, in which data were collected from 212 children, from 0 to 12 years of age, and their families during home visits. Results: 42% of people were living with up to 1 minimum wage, and 48.6% of households included 3-5 people. There was a significant association between family income of up to 1 minimum wage and more than 3 intakes of sugar in between meals, 3-5 minimum wages and 2 intakes of sugar in between meals; house type (brickwork) and 2 to 3 times a day of oral hygiene (p <0.05). Children showed more than 60% of decayed teeth, 10% of missing teeth, and 40% of filled teeth, in the range of 7-12 years old. Conclusion: through this survey it was possible to identify a poor oral health condition and socioeconomic status of the population studied: low wages and schooling of children's caregivers, high level of visible plaque, gingival bleeding, tooth decay, tooth loss of children.

Keywords : Children.; Epidemiology.; Dietary pattern.; Oral health..