Prevalent childhood illnesses detected in dental care and IMCI key practices

Abstract

In the present study, Childhood Illnesses (CI) detected in dental care were associated with sociodemographic variables and IMCI (Integrated Management for Childhood Illness) key practices. It was carried out in mother-child binomials, under five years old, afro descendants from Cartagena-Colombia. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on mothers of 23,400 children under five years. The sample was 548 binomials, selected by random probability sampling during dental care at Jornada de Salud. An operational research instrument was applied to IMCI (questionnaire); CI that occurred in the last seven days and IMCI key practices performed against them were estimated. Frequencies, proportions, Poisson regression with robust variance were reported to associate CI with sociodemographic variables, and IMCI key practices. The CI detected from dental care were mainly colds, dental caries, and diarrhea; the most performed IMCI key practice was exclusive breastfeeding (80.4%). There was an association between the CI and no public health services (RP = 1.16; p = 0.023), not brushing children's teeth after bottle or breastfeeding and before bed (RP = 1.08; p = 0.022 and RP = 0.90; p = 0.006, respectively).