Can healthy eating index be a predictor for early childhood caries in Indian children

Abstract

Objective: To assess whether Healthy Eating Index (HEI) can predict Error correction code (ECC) in children of 3–6 year old. Materials and Methods: Our sample included 350 3–6 year old children attending outpatient department of Pedodontia. Caries score was assessed using decayed, missing, and filled teeth index and HEI was used to evaluate the diet quality. Results: About 65.9% of the children who were breast feeding and bottle feeding at night had higher S-ECC and it was statistically significant (P = 0.001). Conclusion: HEI scores were inversely related to caries severity, i.e. HEI score was significantly higher in simple ECC (57.4) and lesser in S-ECC (53.2).

Keywords

• diet
• early childhood caries
• healthy eating index
• severe early childhood caries