Frequency and factors associated with dental caries in pregnant females visiting antenatal clinic of public sector hospital of Karachi, Pakistan

Objective: To assess the frequency and factors associated with dental caries in pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of a public sector hospital of Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the Sindh Institute of Oral Health Sciences, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi from July 2019-March 2020. Pregnant women of age 18-45 years visiting antenatal clinic were included. The dental examination was carried out to assess the dental caries in accordance with the WHO diagnosis criteria. Frequency of dental caries along with factors like age, socioeconomic status, educational status, occupation, BMI, residence, family structure, gestational hypertension, and gestational diabetes were noted. SPSS version 23 was used to analyze data. The univariate logistic regression was applied to identify the significant predictors of dental caries at p<0.10. The factors which were significant in univariate logistic regression model were added in final single multivariate logistic regression model. P<0.05 was taken as statistically significant Results: Of 375 pregnant women, mean age was 30.32 ±4.37 years. Most of the women were from low socio-economic class 237 (63.2%), uneducated 231 (61.6%) and belonged from rural areas 196 (52.3%). Frequency of dental caries was found to be 108 (28.8%). In multivariate logistic regression model, uneducated females (aOR=9.53, 95% CI=3.93-23.10), rural area residents (aOR=19.73, 95% CI= 7.50-51.88), presence of gestational diabetes (aOR=8.86, 95% CI=3.78-20.73) and presence of gestational hypertension (aOR=4.33, 95% CI=2.01-8.92) remained statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: A higher frequency of dental caries was observed in pregnant women attending antenatal clinics. The significant factors that remained associated with dental caries in final multivariate model were education, residence, gestational hypertension and gestational diabetes mellitus.