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Meta-Analysis
. 2020 Dec;109(12):2472-2478.
doi: 10.1111/apa.15424. Epub 2020 Jul 8.

Systematic review suggests a relationship between moderate to late preterm birth and early childhood caries

Svante Twetman  1 , Katarina Boustedt  2 , Josefine Roswall  3   4 , Jovanna Dahlgren  4
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Systematic review suggests a relationship between moderate to late preterm birth and early childhood caries

Svante Twetman et al. Acta Paediatr. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Aim: The aim was to examine the association between moderate to late preterm birth and the prevalence of early childhood caries.

Methods: We searched the PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Trials Register databases up to February 28, 2020. Two independent reviewers screened the papers for relevance, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed to pool the prevalence of early childhood caries by gestational age.

Results: The authors identified 14 studies covering 210,691 children. They were published from 2007-2020 and included birth cohorts, cross-sectional, register-based and case-control studies. We assessed eight of them as having low or moderate risk of bias. The median caries prevalence was 48.8% among children born moderate to late preterm compared to 20.5% for those born full term. The pooled overall odds ratio was 1.48 (95% confidence interval 1.16-1.89; P < .001). The certainty of this finding was low due to heterogeneity and inconsistencies across the studies.

Conclusion: This systematic review and meta-analysis displayed a significantly higher prevalence of early childhood caries in children born moderate to late preterm compared to full term children. The finding suggests that the gestational age should be collected as a risk factor in the paediatric dental records.

Keywords: caries; meta-analysis; preterm birth; risk factor; teeth.

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References

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