Self-Reported Dental Caries by Mexican Elementary and Middle-School Schoolchildren in the Context of Socioeconomic Indicators: A National Ecological Study
Juan Fernando Casanova-Rosado,
Alejandro José Casanova-Rosado,
Mirna Minaya-Sánchez,
Juan Alejandro Casanova-Sarmiento,
José Luis Robles-Minaya,
Sonia Márquez-Rodríguez,
Mariana Mora-Acosta,
Rosalina Islas-Zarazúa,
María de Lourdes Márquez-Corona,
Leticia Ávila-Burgos,
Carlo Eduardo Medina-Solís,
Gerardo Maupomé
Affiliations
Juan Fernando Casanova-Rosado
School of Dentistry, Autonomous University of Campeche, Campeche 24039, Mexico
Alejandro José Casanova-Rosado
School of Dentistry, Autonomous University of Campeche, Campeche 24039, Mexico
Mirna Minaya-Sánchez
School of Dentistry, Autonomous University of Campeche, Campeche 24039, Mexico
Juan Alejandro Casanova-Sarmiento
School of Dentistry, Autonomous University of Campeche, Campeche 24039, Mexico
José Luis Robles-Minaya
School of Dentistry, Autonomous University of Campeche, Campeche 24039, Mexico
Sonia Márquez-Rodríguez
Academic Area of Dentistry, Health Sciences Institute, Autonomous University of Hidalgo State, Pachuca 42160, Mexico
Mariana Mora-Acosta
Academic Area of Dentistry, Health Sciences Institute, Autonomous University of Hidalgo State, Pachuca 42160, Mexico
Rosalina Islas-Zarazúa
Academic Area of Dentistry, Health Sciences Institute, Autonomous University of Hidalgo State, Pachuca 42160, Mexico
María de Lourdes Márquez-Corona
Academic Area of Dentistry, Health Sciences Institute, Autonomous University of Hidalgo State, Pachuca 42160, Mexico
Leticia Ávila-Burgos
Health Systems Research Center, the National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca 62100, Mexico
Carlo Eduardo Medina-Solís
Academic Area of Dentistry, Health Sciences Institute, Autonomous University of Hidalgo State, Pachuca 42160, Mexico
Gerardo Maupomé
Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA
The objective of the present research was to quantify the association between dental caries self-report and socioeconomic indicators in Mexican children. An ecological study included a self-report of dental caries in schoolchildren enrolled in public elementary and middle schools derived from the National School Health Survey. A total of 73,560 schoolchildren (representing 19,745,366 students) aged 5 to 16 years were included. Socioeconomic variables included were scales depicting physical characteristics of housing, purchasing power, etc. used in national surveys in Mexico to measure deprivation, poverty, and income inequality in official data. Data were analyzed in Stata using Spearman’s correlation test. For the most part, no association (p > 0.05) was found between caries self-report, socioeconomic variables, or the Gini index. However, caries self-report in elementary schoolchildren and total (elementary + middle-school) schoolchildren groups was positively correlated (p < 0.05) with two poverty variables: extreme poverty by income (value of personal food purchases per month) and poverty by income (value of personal food and non-food purchases per month). National data for dental caries self-report were associated—at the ecological level—with a few socioeconomic indicators but not with most of the usual and customary indicators used in national surveys in Mexico.
