Association Between Maternal Age in Pregnancy and Dental Caries in Preschool Children

Background: Maternal age at child birth is associated adverse health outcomes and also with dental caries in preschool children. Children to young mothers have more dental caries than older mothers.

Aim: To determine the association between mother age in pregnancy and dental caries en preschool children.

Design: Cross-sectional study that included all children born between 2000 and 2003 and who were residing in Stockholm County, Sweden. Oral examinations were done at age 7 years with 65,259 children (33,423 boys and 31,836 girls). The variables analyzed were age of mother in pregnancy categorized in <=25 years; 25< years <35; >= 35 years and deft index. Forward stepwise binary logistic regressions were done to verify the association between maternal age in pregnancy and dental caries in children.

Results: Mother under 25 years and over 35 had children with significantly higher caries experience (p<0,05). Young age at childbirth (35 years) and dental caries in children in the multivariate model controlled by sex, number of children by family, family income, immigrant mother, delivery, mother obesity, mother’s smoking

Conclusion: There was a significant relationship between young mothers and dental caries in the offspring at 7 years of age. An increased caries prevalence in children to older mothers are explained by other factors.