Feasibility and development of a cariogenic diet scale for epidemiological research

Abstract

Background: Diet cariogenicity plays a major role as both a protective and risk factor in the development of early childhood caries (ECC). Aim: Develop a scale measuring the cariogenicity of foods and beverages and employ it to describe the cariogenicity of young children's diets and predict dental caries outcomes. Design: Scores of cariogenicity and consumption frequency were applied to food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) collected from an Australian children's cohort study with three time-points of data. One-way ANOVA, with post hoc Tukey test compared mean cariogenic scale measured at 18 months between the subsample of children with caries classification at age 5 years. Results: At 6 month..