Relationship between Salivary Alpha-Amylase Enzyme Activity, Anthropometric Indices, Dietary Habits, and Early Childhood Dental Caries

Table 1

Distribution of general characteristics of the case and control groups.

Variable				Groups
				ECC (n = 38)	Control (n = 41)	value	Odds ratio (95% confidence interval)
Sex	Male (ref)			16 (50%)	16 (50%)	0.451^a	1.14 (0.46–2.79)
	Female			22 (46.8%)	25 (53.2%)
Age (mean ± SD [months])				56.5 ± 10.3	53.1 ± 11.9	0.186^b	—
BMI	Underweight (<5^th percentile)			6 (40%)	9 (60%)	0.199	0.44 (0.11–1.74)
	Normal (5^th<85^th percentile)(ref)			12 (60%)	8 (40%)		—
	At risk of overweight (85^th to <95^th percentile), overweight (≥ 95^th percentile)			19 (48.7%)	20 (51.3%)		0.63 (0.21–1.89)
Maternal working status	Working			21 (51.2%)	20 (44.8%)	0.363	1.3 (0.54–3.14)
	Non-working (ref)			17 (44.7%)	21 (55.3%)
Education level	Paternal		Academic	18 (40.9%)	26 (59.1%)	0.113	0.52 (0.21–1.28)
			≤High school	20 (59.1%)	15 (42.9%)
	Maternal		Academic	15 (36.6%)	26 (63.4%)	0.028	0.38 (0.15–0.93)
			≤High school	23 (60.5%)	15 (39.5%)
Salivary α-amylase activity (U/L)				222.8 ± 65.7	363.6 ± 69.6	≤0.001	—
Oral hygiene (brushing per day)			Once or less (ref)	32 (68.1%)	15 (31.9%)	≤0.001	0.11 (0.04–0.32)
			Twice	6 (18.8%)	26 (81.3%)
Snacking	Time	With main meals (scheduled) (ref)		4 (13.8%)	25 (86.2%)	≤0.001	13.28 (3.96–44.59)
		Between main meals (unscheduled)		34 (68%)	16 (32%)
	Stickiness	Fruit juice and sugar liquids (ref)		1 (4.8%)	20 (95.2%)	≤0.001	—
		Cake and biscuit		17 (54.8%)	14 (45.2%)		24.29 (2.89–204.22)
		Pastel and toffee		20 (74.1%)	7 (25.9%)		57.14 (6.43–508.06)
	Frequency (per day)	<3 times		5 (13.2%)	33 (86.8%)	≤0.001	—
		3–5 times		20 (74.1%)	7 (25.9%)		18.86 (5.27–67.48)
		>5 times		13 (92.9%)	1 (7.1%)		85.8 (9.13–806.68)

a: chi-square test. b: Mann–Whitney test. ref: reference category.