Association between adverse childhood experiences, bullying, self-esteem, resilience, social support, caries and oral hygiene in children and adolescents in sub-urban Nigeria.

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and bullying have negative effects on oral health. Promotive assets (resilience, self-esteem) and resources (perceived social support) can ameliorate their negative impact. The aim of this study was to determine the association between oral diseases (caries, caries complications and poor oral hygiene), ACE and bully victimization and the effect of access to promotive assets and resources on oral diseases.

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of data collected through a cross-sectional school survey of children 6-16-years-old in Ile-Ife, Nigeria from October to December 2019. The outcome variables were caries, measured with the dmft/DMFT index; caries complications measured with the pufa/PUFA index; and poor oral hygiene measured with the oral hygiene index-simplified. The explanatory variables were ACE, bully victimization, resilience, self-esteem, and social support. Confounders were age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Association between the explanatory and outcome variables was determined with logistic regression.

Results: Of the 1001 pupils with complete data, 81 (8.1%) had poor oral hygiene, 59 (5.9%) had caries and 6 (10.2%) of those with caries had complications. Also, 679 (67.8%) pupils had one or more ACE and 619 (62.1%) pupils had been bullied one or more times. The median (interquartile range [IQR]) for ACE was 1(3), for bully victimization was 1(5), and for self-esteem and social support scores were 22(5) and 64(34) respectively. The mean (standard deviation) score for resilience was 31(9). The two factors that were significantly associated with the presence of caries were self-esteem (AOR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.85-0.98; p = 0.02) and social support (AOR: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.97-1,00; p = 0.02). No psychosocial factor was significantly associated with caries complications. Self-esteem was associated with poor oral hygiene (AOR: 1.09; 95% CI: 1.09-1.17; p = 0.03).

Conclusion: There was a complex relationship between ACE, bully victimization, access to promotive assets and resources by children and adolescents, and oral health. ACE and bully victimization were not associated with oral health problems. Though self-esteem was associated with caries and poor oral hygiene, the relationships were inverse. Promotive assets and resources were not associated with caries complications though resources were associated with lower prevalence of caries.