International Journal of Community Dentistry

LETTER TO EDITOR
Year
: 2019  |  Volume : 7  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 49-

Dental caries and body mass index: A cross-sectional study among urban schoolchildren of age between 7 and 15 years in Chennai, India


Mahmood Dhahir Al-Mendalawi 
 Department of Paediatrics, Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq

Correspondence Address:
Prof. Mahmood Dhahir Al-Mendalawi
P.O. Box 55302, Baghdad Post Office, Baghdad
Iraq




How to cite this article:
Al-Mendalawi MD. Dental caries and body mass index: A cross-sectional study among urban schoolchildren of age between 7 and 15 years in Chennai, India.Int J Community Dent 2019;7:49-49


How to cite this URL:
Al-Mendalawi MD. Dental caries and body mass index: A cross-sectional study among urban schoolchildren of age between 7 and 15 years in Chennai, India. Int J Community Dent [serial online] 2019 [cited 2024 Mar 28 ];7:49-49
Available from: https://www.ijcommdent.com/text.asp?2019/7/2/49/299590


Full Text



Sir,

I read the distinguished study by Anusha et al.[1] published in January–July 2019 issue of the International Journal of Community Dentistry. The authors evaluated the correlation between dental caries (DC) and many risk factors such as age, gender, body mass index (BMI), junk food consumption, sugar intake, and intermittent snacking habit among Indian school-going children of upper socioeconomic status. They found that on the whole, except for age and gender, none of the risk factors evaluated involving junk food intake, snack intake, and BMI were noticed to be correlated with DC.[1] I presume that the observed nonsignificant correlation between BMI and DC must be cautiously interpreted due to the presence of the following methodological limitation. In the methodology, Anusha et al.[1] obviously stated that “BMI was calculated using the formula weight (kg)/height (m2), i.e., weight in kilograms divided by height in meter square. The value obtained was plotted for age-specific percentile curves on centers for disease control growth charts.” It is well known that there are different BMI standards in the clinical fields, namely Centers for Disease Control standard, World Health Organization standard, and national standard. Studies on different BMI standards disclosed that the use of population-specific standard could assess overweight/obesity in children more precisely.[2],[3],[4] Interestingly, India has already formulated national BMI standard to be utilized in the research institutions and clinical fields.[5] I wonder why Anusha et al.[1] referred in the study methodology to CDC standard rather than Indian standard in the studied population. I assume that employing national BMI standard could reveal better the correlation between BMI and DC.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

References

1Anusha R, Krishnan L, Diwakar MP. Dental caries and body mass index: A cross-sectional study among urban schoolchildren of age between 7 and 15 years in Chennai, India. Int J Community Dent 2019;7:7-10.
2Ma J, Wang Z, Song Y, Hu P, Zhang B. BMI percentile curves for Chinese children aged 7-18 years, in comparison with the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention references. Public Health Nutr 2010;13:1990-6.
3Pedersen DC, Pearson S, Baker JL. The implications of using different body mass index references in children and adolescents. Ugeskr Laeger 2017;179:V11160779.
4Woźniacka R, Bac A, Kowal M, Matusik S. Differences in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in 5- to 14-year-old children in Kraków, Poland, using three national BMI cut-offs. J Biosoc Sci 2018;50:365-79.
5Khadilkar VV, Khadilkar AV. Revised Indian Academy of Pediatrics 2015 growth charts for height, weight and body mass index for 5-18-year-old Indian children. Indian J Endocrinol Metab 2015;19:470-6.