Pure juice consumption and ECC trends

Background: Early childhood caries (ECC) remains one of the most prevalent infectious diseases among children in the United States and its prevalence may be increasing. Purpose: To determine if there is a relationship between the increase in the consumption of 100% fruit juice and the increase in caries prevalence among preschool children adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: Data for children 2-6 years of age from the 1988-1994 and 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) periods were used. The dependent variable was ECC as measured by prevalence of caries (yes/no), severity of caries (none, low, high), and caries count (dfs). Independent variables were 100% pure juice consumed in the previous 24 hours (yes/no) and amount of pure juice consumed in that time (ounces). Sociodemographic characteristics included age, poverty, gender, dental visits, and consumption of dessert. Logistic, proportional odds, and Poisson regression models were fit to determine the association between ECC and pure juice reported consumption. Results: Pure fruit juice (100%) was a protective factor against ECC in 1988-94 [0.55 (0.46, 0.65] but not in 1999-2004 [0.98 (0.96, 1.0)]; associations did not change after adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Interactions for juice consumption and survey years were significant indicating that the association between pure juice consumption and ECC differed between the two survey periods. Conclusion: There was a change in the association between pure juice and ECC in the United States between 1988-1994 and 1999-2004.