Socio-demographic and familial factors associated with hospital admissions and repeat admission for dental caries in early childhood: A population-based study

Abstract

Objectives: Dental caries remains a complex childhood condition often requiring preventable hospital admissions. There are limited population-based epidemiological studies that use large and linked data sets to quantify the clinical, socio-demographic and familial risk factors related to hospital admissions for dental caries. The aim of this study was to describe and quantify the rates, socio-demographic, clinical characteristics and familial factors including repeat admissions associated with young children admitted to hospital for dental caries. Methods: This cohort study (n = 33,438) used longitudinally linked hospital admission data among all children aged