Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Oct 24;22(1):453.
doi: 10.1186/s12903-022-02489-4.

Prevalence of dental caries in the permanent dentition amongst 12-year-olds in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

F Kimmie-Dhansay  1 , A Bhayat  2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Prevalence of dental caries in the permanent dentition amongst 12-year-olds in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

F Kimmie-Dhansay et al. BMC Oral Health. .

Abstract

Background: Dental caries (DC) is highly prevalent condition affecting mostly young children. There has been no systematic review done on the prevalence of DC amongst 12-year -olds in Africa. Although some African countries have reported a decrease in DC prevalence, others have shown an increase and it is essential to measure current trends in order to identify strategies and programmes that could assist in reducing DC in Africa. The aim of this systematic review was to determine the prevalence of DC (condition) amongst the permanent dentition of 12-year-old children (population) in Africa (context).

Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed. Peer reviewed cross-sectional articles from January 2000 until December 2021 was searched and this included the following databases: Pubmed (Medline); SCOPUS; CINAHL (via EBSCOhost); Academic Search Complete (via EBSCOhost); Dentistry and Oral Sciences Sources (via EBSCOhost); and Science Direct. The search was last updated on the 10th January 2022. Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools were used to assess risk of bias. Prevalence figures were stratified by Urban/Rural status, country and time using a random-effects model. All studies performed on children 12-year-olds on the African continent were included. The prevalence of DC and the DMFT scores were the primary and secondary outcome measures, respectively. Only articles consisting of 12-year-old children who reside in Africa were included in this study. The systematic review was registered with Prospero CRD42021293666.

Results: 18,080 participants were included in this review. A total of thirty studies were included in the review. The pooled effect size of dental caries severity was 1.09 (CI 0.91-1.27) and the overall prevalence was 36% (CI 29.4-41.7%). Eritrea (78%) had the highest prevalence of DC while Zambia had the lowest (11%); Eritrea also had the highest DMFT score (2.5) with Sudan having the lowest score (0.49). Urban cities had the highest DMFT score (1.32, CI 0.97-1.68), compared to rural cities (1.13, CI 0.86-1.4) and there was an increasing trend in DC prevalence over time from 28% (CI 23-34%) in 2000 to 2005 to 57% (CI 43-72%) in studies conducted after 2015. The risk of bias was very low where majority of the studies scored more than 50% in the JBI critical appraisal tool.

Conclusions: There was a wide discrepancy in the DC prevalence and scores across the different countries, settings (rural versus urban) and there was an increase in the prevalence over time. This review was self-funded.

Keywords: 12-year-old; Africa; Caries prevalence; DMFT; Rural; Urban.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram of article selection process
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Distribution of mean prevalence across the continent
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Meta-Analysis of prevalence of dental caries for urban and rural settings
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Meta-Analysis of mean DMFT scores for urban/rural settings. Note Weights and between-subgroup heterogeneity test are from random-effects model
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Meta-Analysis of prevalence of dental caries for different time periods
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Meta-Analysis of DMFT scores during different time periods. NOTE: Weights and between-subgroup heterogeneity test are from random-effects mod
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Publication bias for prevalence
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Publication bias for dmft
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Gilchrist F, Marshman Z, Deery C, Rodd HD. The impact of dental caries on children and young people: What they have to say? Int J Paediatr Dent. 2015;25(5):327–338. - PubMed
    1. Bernabe, Marcenes W, Hernandez CR, Bailey J, Abreu LG, Alipour V, et al. Global, regional, and national levels and trends in burden of oral conditions from 1990 to 2017 a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease 2017 study. J Dent Res. 2020;362–73. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Karki S, Päkkilä J, Laitala ML, Humagain M, Anttonen V. Influence of dental caries on oral health-related quality of life, school absenteeism and school performance among Nepalese schoolchildren. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2019;47(6):461–469. - PubMed
    1. Quadros LN, Rebelo MAB, de Queiroz AC, Pereira JV, Vettore MV, Rebelo Vieira JM. Clinical consequences of untreated dental caries and school performance in low-income adolescents. Int J Paediatr Dent. 2021;31(5):619–626. - PubMed
    1. Barasuol JC, Soares JP, Castro RG, Giacomin A, Goncalves BM, Klein D, et al. Untreated dental caries is associated with reports of verbal bullying in children 8–10 years old. Caries Res. 2017;51(5):482–488. - PubMed