JBR Journal of Clinical Diagnosis and Research
Open Access

Research Article

Association of Dental Caries and Obesity with Television Viewing Practices among School Children of Moradabad City

Kothiwal Dental College and Research Centre, Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

*Corresponding Author:

Aastha Malik
Kothiwal Dental College and Research Centre
Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh
India
Tel: 969-071-1100
E-mail: aastha.malik.02@gmail.com

Received date: April 8, 2016; Accepted date: May 24, 2016; Published date: June 2, 2016

Citation: Ravishankar TL, Malik A, Tirth A, Tandon V (2016) Association of Dental Caries and Obesity with Television Viewing Practices among School Children of Moradabad City. J Clin Diagn Res 4: 124. doi:10.4172/2376-0311.1000124

Copyright: © 2016 Ravishankar TL, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: Television viewing has been implicated as a possible risk factor for the increase in a number of chronic diseases, particularly those related to sedentary life style. Objective: Study was aimed to examine the association of television viewing on oral health and BMI (body mass index) among school children of Moradabad city. Materials and method: Convenient samples of 1100 children aged 7-12 yrs were recruited from schools of Moradabad. Sixteen-item, close-ended, validated questionnaire were distributed among study subjects and parents of 7 year old children, followed by clinical examination of the students; which includes oral examination and calculating BMI, by a single calibrated examiner in the classroom with adequate natural light. Results: Of all children 52% watched television for more than 1 hr per day. 62.4% children who had their meals in front of television, 61.9% who demanded snacks after watching advertisements were having dental caries (Decayed Missing Filled Teeth ≥ 1) DMFT and many were found to be overweight who had similar habits. 56.5% of children who watch television for >1 hr were having a plaque score (>2). Conclusion: The present study shows high prevalence of dental caries, poor oral hygiene and increased BMI was associated with television viewing habits of children.

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