Dietary and oral health practices among children attending Makunga rural health demonstration center, Mumias east sub-county, Kakamega county, Kenya

Abstract

Introduction: Diet and its nutritional consequences can have profound influence in tooth development and progression of diseases of the oral cavity in children. The main objective of this study was to determine the dietary and oral health practices for children aged 3 to 12 years attending Makunga Rural Health Demonstration Center (RHDC) and to explore the association of dietary practices and oral health.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out amongst 44 children aged 3 to 12 years attending Makunga RHDC who were accessible for the study at the time. A questionnaire was administered to determine the dietary and oral health practices amongst the respondents.

Results: Consumption and eating frequency of certain snacks such as groundnuts, sweets and biscuits were found to be among the risk factors associated with oral health problems. Half of the children had the highest frequency of snacking per day at two times, with 29.5% at once a day and 20.5% of the children snacked three times a day respectively. There was significant association between the number of times a child snacked in a day and the presence of teething problems ((X2=7.246, P=.027)

Conclusion and Recommendations: Snacking frequency impacted on the presence of teething problems amongst the respondents. It is recommended that oral health education should be rolled out to rural populations especially amongst school going children.