A survey, including a clinical and radiographic examination for dental health, was carried out on 19 6-year-old Finnish immigrant children and 24 Swedish children in a Stockholm suburb. The parents were interviewed about their children's and their own dietary habits. The study showed generally worse dietary habits in the Finnish than in Swedish group. Both the children and the parents in the Finnish group had more food intakes per day than the Swedes. The Finnish children had a significantly more frequent consumption of cariologically unsuitable products such as soft-drinks, sweets, lozenges and chewing-gum than the Swedish children and a majority of the Finnish parents took sugar in their coffee and/or tea. The Finnish children had also more filled and carious teeth. The study revealed a great need for both general dietary and dental health information in the studied group of Finnish immigrant families with pre-schoolchildren.

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Food Habits Oral Hygiene comparative study feeding behavior mouth hygiene Sweden Emigration and Immigration Finland dental caries ethnology Article Support, Non-U.S. Gov't human migration Child