Clustering of oral health risk behaviors and its influencing factors among 12-year-old children in Beijing

  Objective   To investigate the clustering of oral risk behaviors and its influencing factors among children and to provide evidences for promoting oral health in children.

  Methods   The data on 2 158 children aged 12 years in 18 middle schools were extracted from the Fourth Oral Health Survey conducted during 2015 in Beijing city. The prevalence and the clustering of oral health risk behaviors among subgroups of the children were compared and factors affecting the clustering of oral health risk behaviors were explored.

  Results   Of all the children surveyed, 45.92% reported having at least two oral risk behaviors, indicating a clustering trend in oral risk behaviors among the children. The proportion of the children with clustering of oral risk behaviors were 52.36% and 39.48% for the boys and the girls, respectively. The results of logistic regression analysis showed that the children with following characteristic were less likely to have clustering of oral risk behaviors: being female (odds ratio OR = 0.58, P < 0.001), with a maternal education of undergraduate and above (OR = 0.45, P < 0.001), and with a higher oral health knowledge (OR = 0.64, P < 0.001); while, the children being non-only child were more likely to have clustering of oral risk behaviors (OR = 1.41, P < 0.01).

  Conclusion   The clustering of oral health risk behaviors is prevalent among 12 years old school children in Beijing, particularly among the children being non-only child and with lower maternal education.