Self-Reported Oral Health Problems and Risk Factors Associated with 3‒6-year-old Children Nutritional Status in Indonesia

Nutritional problems are among the essential aspects significantly affecting the health status of children. Oral health problems, especially untreated dental caries that keeps increasing among children can cause malnutrition. This study aimed to determine the association of self-reported oral health problems and other risk factors with nutritional status of children aged 3-6 years in Indonesia. A cross-sectional study of 27,022 children aged 3-6 years old in Indonesia was conducted through self-reported oral health problems and data from 2018 National basic health survey. Chi-square analysis revealed significant correlation (p<0,05) between self-reported oral health problems with nutritional status categorized by body mass index (BMI) based by age using Z-score. There were 836 (7,72%) underweight children, 8.302 (76,68%) normally-weighing children, 752 (6,95%) overweight children, and 936 (8,65%) obese children who had self-reported oral health problems. The bivariate analysis also showed significant statistical correlation between age of children, mother’s educational level, father’s employment status, the economic status of family, children and mother’s dietary practice, accessibility to health care facilities, and diarrhea to children aged 3-6 years nutritional status (p-value <0,05) while there was no significant correlation between nutritional status and gender