Validation of maternal report of early childhood caries status in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

BMC Oral Health

Table 1 Relationship between maternal socio-demographic profile and clinically assessed and mother-reported presence of early childhood caries

Variables	Clinical evaluation of early childhood caries					Maternal reporting of early childhood caries					p value for McNemar test^a
	Absent		Present		P value	Absent		Present		P value
	Number	%	Number	%	P value	Number	%	Number	%	P value
Age of mother
< 29 yrs	384	34.8	13	24.5	0.251^b	383	96.5	14	3.5	0.845^b	1.000
30–39 yrs	602	54.6	35	66.0		615	96.5	22	3.5		0.085
> 40 yrs	116	10.5	5	9.4		118	97.5	3	2.5		0.727
Mother’s income
≤ N18,000 ($49.00)/month	307	27.9	19	35.8	0.217	320	98.2	6	1.8	< 0.001	0.011
N18,001–N60,000/month	450	40.8	23	43.4		467	98.7	6	1.3		0.002
> N60,000 ($168.00)/month	345	31.3	11	20.8		329	92.4	27	7.6		0.007
Mother’s educational status
No formal/primary education	96	8.7	8	15.1	0.286^b	100	96.2	4	3.8	0.169^b	0.344
Secondary	715	64.9	32	60.4		727	97.3	20	2.7		0.104
Tertiary	291	26.4	13	24.5		289	95.1	15	4.9		0.845
Mother’s ability to access health care for herself independently
No	796	73.4	37	71.2	0.717	825	99.0	8	1.0	0.001	< 0.001
Yes	288	26.6	15	28.8	0.717	272	89.8	31	10.2	0.001	0.017
Mother’s ability to make household purchase independently
No	827	76.5	38	76.0	0.935	857	99.1	8	0.9	< 0.001	< 0.001
Yes	254	23.5	12	24.0	0.935	235	88.3	31	11.7	< 0.001	0.003
Mother’s ability to make family visits independently
No	806	75.3	39	75.0	0.967	837	99.1	8	0.9	< 0.001	< 0.001
Yes	265	24.7	13	25.0	0.967	248	89.2	30	10.8	< 0.001	0.008
Child history of dental service utilization
Never used	1031	95.3	48	92.3	0.313^b	1049	97.2	30	2.8	0.001	0.047
Ever used	51	4.7	4	7.7	0.313^b	49	89.1	6	10.9	0.001	0.687

^aMcNemar's test on paired data of clinical versus maternal evaluation of caries for N = 1155 children with both clinical and maternal evaluation of ECC
^bFisher exact test compute

ISSN: 1472-6831