The Patterns of Dental Caries Influence on the Children’s Quality of Life Aged 3-5 Years Based on the Socioeconomic Characteristics

Abstract

The objective of this research was to analyze the patterns of dental caries influence on the children’s quality of life aged 3-5 years based on the socioeconomic characteristics of their mother in Mojokerto Indonesia. This research can be considered as an observational analytic. This research was conducted in Puskesmas Wates Mojokerto and involved children aged 3-5 years as well as their mother. In total, this research involved 309 children and their mothers. Data obtained was related to the number of deciduous tooth caries cases and the assessment of children’s quality of life obtained from their mothers, that have been tested for their validity and reliability. In all of the groups of the socioeconomic characteristics, it is known that the number of dental caries cases found generally had considerable effects on the children’s quality of life. Next, based on the analysis of the influence followed with multigroup analysis aimed to know the significance of the difference between the coefficient values of each group of socioeconomic characteristics, it is also known that among those three groups there was a significant coefficient value in the socioeconomic characteristic group of children living at the same house with their mother. It can be concluded that in the group of mothers who have more than two children, dental caries has significantly greater effect on the children’s quality of life than that in the group of mothers who have fewer than or equal to two children.