Investigation of factors influencing sugar consumption in early life: a cross-sectional study

This study evaluated the influence of socioeconomic factors, caregiver characteristics, and early feeding practices on sugar consumption frequency (FSC) during early childhood. Data were collected from dental records of children aged 1 to 5 years old, who were attended at CliBin®, including sex, age, skin color, income level, mother's age and years of education, primary caregiver, prior instructions on caries prevention, type of early feeding practices (breastfeeding/formula/mixed), exclusive breastfeeding (EB) up to 6 months, children's dental care and their consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and cookies/sugar (CS), with frequency classified as: never (2 points), ≤ 3 times/day (1 point) and > 3 times/day (0 points). The lower the median score the higher the FSC. Descriptive analysis, Kruskal-Wallis test, and ANOVA were applied considering p < 0.05. A total of 123 records were included. The children were predominantly male (56.1%), and brown (46.5%), with an average age of 2.1 (± 0.9) years. The mother was the primary caregiver (86.1%), with ≤ 30 years of age (52.0%), < 12 years of education (75.2%), and previously instructed on caries prevention (58.2%). Most children were breastfed (45.5%) for 23.2 (±9.7) months on average, received EB (87.1%), consumed SSB (87.6%) and CS (90.9%) 3 times/day. The total FSC mean score was 1.6 ± 0.9 (95%CI: 1.4-1.7). Children of younger mothers (≤ 30 years) had the lowest FSC scores (1.4 ± 0.9; 95%CI: 1.0-1.6; p=0.01). It was observed that among the factors studied, only mothers in the younger age range influenced high sugar consumption during early childhood.