Mumbai: Mothers who suffer from chronic stress are more likely to have children with a higher prevalence of dental cavities, a new study has found.
Chronic stress was also found to be linked to lower probabilities of breast feeding and dental visits by children.
Researchers analysed data from 716 maternal-child pairs in the US, with children aged two to six years and mothers who were on average 30 six years of age, taken from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-1994) in the US.
Researchers from King's College London and University of Washington found that dental cavities were more common among children whose mother had two or more biological markers of chronic stress, an incident known as allostatic load (AL), compared to no markers of AL (44.2 per cent vs 27.9 per cent respectively).
Additional analysis tested the association between maternal AL and care-taking behaviours, such as breast feeding, dental visits, and eating breakfast daily.
They identified that dental cavities were more common among children whose mother did not breastfeed them, than those who did: 62.9 per cent vs 37.1 per cent respectively.
Mothers who had one and two or more markers of AL were significantly less likely to breastfeed than those with a normal AL level.
The study also considered the role of socioeconomic status in the relationships.
Several studies have established a persistent association between socioeconomic status (SES) - and dental cavities, but few have also evaluated one possible pathway - that of maternal stress.
When SES was considered in the analysis, the significant relationship between AL and child cavities decreased; as expected considering the established relationships between SES and both maternal AL and child cavities.
"Chronic maternal stress as a potential risk factor is something we need to consider, in addition to the wider implications of maternal wellbeing, social, and psychological environment on dental health," said co-author Wael Sabbah from the Dental Institute at King's College London.
"Our study indicated that mothers with lower income were significantly less likely to breastfeed or to have taken their child to the dentist in the prior year," Sabbah said.
This was not the first study to associate maternal exposure to stress and child cavities, but it is the first study to examine the relationship using biological markers - serum triglycerides; serum HDL cholesterol; plasma glucose; serum C-reactive protein; systolic or diastolic blood pressure; and waist circumference, researchers said.
The study was published in the American Journal of Public Health
