Maternal burnout and oral health behavior among mothers of stunted and non-stunted preschool children in Bandung, Indonesia: a comparative cross-sectional study

Mothers play a crucial role in establishing oral hygiene practices in early childhood. However, evidence on parental burnout in relation to oral health behaviour (OHB) between mothers of stunted and non-stunted children is still lacking. This study aimed to compare parental burnout and oral health behavior between mothers of stunted and non-stunted preschool children, to examine the association between parental burnout and oral health behavior within each group, and to identify factors independently associated with maternal oral health behavior. The study included 208 mother–child pairs, comprising 108 mothers of children with stunting (stunting group) and 100 mothers of non-stunted children (comparison group). Maternal burnout, defined as parenting-related emotional exhaustion, was assessed by the Indonesian Parental Burnout Assessment and OHB by the Oral Health Behaviour Index. Group differences were analyzed using Mann–Whitney U and chi-square tests. Associations were examined using Spearman correlation. Independent factors were analyzed using multiple linear regression. Mothers of non-stunted children showed higher maternal burnout scores than mothers of stunted children (median 30.5 vs. 12.0; p < 0.001; r = 0.630) and higher scores of oral health behaviour (median 9.0 vs. 8.0; p < 0.001; r = 0.304). Maternal burnout was not associated with OHB in the stunting group (rₛ=0.080; p = 0.412), and the non-stunted group (rₛ=−0.149; p = 0.139). In the adjusted model, non-stunted status was associated with an increase of 1.09 points in OHB score (B = 1.090; 95% CI 0.339–1.842; p = 0.005), while parental burnout was not associated with OHB (B = − 0.002; p = 0.871). Parental burnout differed between the two groups but was not associated with oral health behavior. An adjusted difference in oral health behavior remained between mothers of stunted and non-stunted children; however, given the cross-sectional design, this finding should not be interpreted as evidence of a direct effect of child stunting status on maternal oral health behavior.