The Influence of Parental Behavior on the Dental Caries Status and Saliva Acid Level of Children Aged 6-7 Years in Malang City Elementary Schools, Indonesia

Introduction: Dental caries exhibited an 88.8% DMFT index of 7.1, from the 2018 National Indonesia Research study. The age group 6–12 years had the highest of dental caries, caused by multifactors, individual, parental behavior and role, and school. The aim of this study to determine parental conduct affected student’s saliva acid levels and dental caries. Methods: 90 elementary school children, and their parents from three Malang City schools participated in the quasi-experimental study design using purposive sampling. Informed consent was obtained, parents were given questionnaires of parent’s oral health behavior, and 6 variable based on TPB and students were assessed for dental caries DMFT WHO Index and acid level instrument to measure saliva acid levels. Parental behavior was independent variable, saliva acid level and dental caries status were dependent variables and analyzed with multiple linear regression Results: the saliva acid level had a value of 5.6 - 7.8, and their average DMFT was high. Only two variables significantly correlated between parent’s conduct and student DMFT: the outcome evaluation variable. The clinical evaluation parental conduct and DMFT significantly correlated by Pearson analysis, a sig value of less than 0.05 for both. The outcome demonstrated a significant (sig value <0.05) between saliva acid level and motivation to comply. Conclusion: the average saliva acid level was alkaline, for parent’s behavior significant between the motivation to comply variable and saliva acid level, only outcome evaluation variable and the parent behavior variable were significantly correlated between parent’s conduct and student DMFT.