TY  - JOUR
T1  - Statistical Evaluation of Risk Factors Affecting Dental Caries Prevalence In Different Age Groups
A1  - Bernabe Canqui Flores
A1  - Julio César Machaca Mamani
A1  - Jose Panfilo Tito Lipa
A1  - Vladimiro Ibañez Quispe
A1  - Nelly Beatriz Quispe Maquera
A1  - Felix Henry Castillo Gutierrez
A1  - Percy Huata Panca
JF  - Annals of Dental Specialty
JO  - Ann Dent Spec
SN  - 2347-2022
Y1  - 2026
VL  - 14
IS  - 1
DO  - 10.51847/YMMrBRCa5T
SP  - 112
EP  - 122
N2  - Dental caries remains common across childhood, adulthood, and older age, but the epidemiology of disease changes substantially across the life course. Children are affected by primary dentition caries, adolescents enter a transition period of permanent dentition risk, adults accumulate treated and untreated coronal disease, and elderly adults face additional root caries and dry-mouth-related vulnerability. These age differences mean that risk factors should not be assumed to operate identically in every subgroup. Dental survey data are not clean, complete, or perfectly balanced. Missing income, missing dietary responses, recall bias in hygiene and sugar questions, examiner variability, non-response, and small elderly subgroups can all affect estimated associations. If these imperfections are ignored, age-specific risk estimates may be biased or falsely precise. This statistical analysis evaluated risk factors for dental caries prevalence across age groups using NHANES 2017–March 2020 prepandemic data. The objective was to estimate associations between caries prevalence and socioeconomic, dietary, hygiene, dental attendance, and fluoride-related variables while explicitly addressing missingness and complex survey design. The analysis prioritized honest reporting over overstated prediction claims. The analytic dataset included 8,700 participants grouped as children, adolescents, adults, and elderly adults. The primary outcome was caries experience, defined as dmft or DMFT greater than zero, with secondary models evaluating DMFT count severity. Predictors included age, sex, poverty-income ratio, sugar frequency, brushing frequency, dental attendance, and fluoride exposure proxies. Multiple imputation with 20 imputations was combined with survey-weighted logistic regression using examination weights, strata, and primary sampling units. Weighted caries prevalence was 45% among children, 71% among adolescents, 89% among adults, and 93% among elderly adults. Missingness ranged from 9% for poverty-income ratio to 21% for dental attendance and related behavioral variables. In imputed models, frequent sugar exposure was associated with caries among children, with an odds ratio of 2.10, but the elderly estimate was weaker and not statistically significant, with an odds ratio of 1.20 and p-value of 0.21. AUROC values ranged from 0.68 to 0.73, indicating poor to acceptable discrimination. Age-specific caries risk patterns were observed, but missing data, recall bias, examiner variability, and small elderly subgroup size limited precision. Multiple imputation and survey weighting changed several estimates compared with complete-case analysis, showing that naive complete-case models would be misleading. Children showed the clearest sugar-related association, whereas elderly risk estimates remained less certain. Future surveys should oversample older adults and collect stronger data on xerostomia, medication use, salivary function, and fluoride exposure. 
UR  - https://annalsofdentalspecialty.net.in/article/statistical-evaluation-of-risk-factors-affecting-dental-caries-prevalence-in-different-age-groups-qlcqj7xinca2lx6
ER  -