Correlation between oral health behaviors and status among family members

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the associations among parents and their children regarding oral health behaviors (OHB) and oral health status (OHS). Methods: Home visits were made to the selected familieswith a child at age 5-7 years in Hong Kong. The father and mother each separately completed a questionnaire regarding his/her own OHB including toothbrushing, flossing, use of fluoride toothpaste, time since last dental visit and dental insurance coverage. Another questionnaire about the child’s oral health behavior was completed by the parents. Clinicalexaminations were conducted by one calibrated examiner to assess the OHS of all subjects including oral hygiene, tooth, and periodontal status. Structural Equation models were used to assess the inter-correlations of the OHB and OHS among family members.

Results: 432 families with 359 fathers, 419 mothers and 432 children participated; 346 families with full data from both parents and children were used in the analyses. Positive inter-correlations were found between the OHS of the father and mother (Φ=0.43, p<0.05), mother and child (Φ=0.33, p<0.05), and father and child (Φ=0.30, p<0.05). Strong correlations between the OHB among the members were found (father and mother: Φ=0.80, mother and child: Φ=0.65, father and child: Φ=0.71, all p<0.05). With such strong correlation, the father’s OHB was used to investigate its influence on the OHS of the family members. It was found that better father’s OHB was simultaneously associated with better OHS of the father (γ=0.58, p<0.05, R2=0.34), mother (γ=0.57, p<0.05, R2=0.32) and the child (γ=0.27, p<0.05, R2=0.07) though with a lower extent. Similar results were obtained when the mother’s OHB was used for the same investigation.

Conclusions: There were associations between the OHB and OHS among the family members with stronger associations found between the spouses than their children.

(Supported by the University of Hong Kong CRCG grant# 201007176156)