Global Research Trends on Early-Life Feeding Practices and Early Childhood Caries: A Systematic Review

Table 3

Attributes of publications meeting review inclusion criteria.

	Overall 𝑁=244	1990–1997 𝑁=54	1998–2005 𝑁=79	2006–2013 𝑁=111
Countries represented	47	19	23	34
Sample size^1,	295	245	249	375
Median (range)	(30–13,889)	(43–3000)	(41–4236)	(30–13,889)
Study design^2
Cross-sectional	182 (75%)	39 (72%)	63 (80%)	80 (72%)
Longitudinal	51 (21%)	14 (26%)	13 (16%)	24 (22%)
Intervention	9 (4%)	1 (2%)	2 (3%)	6 (5%)
Peer reviewed	232 (95%)	53 (98%)	74 (94%)	105 (95%)
Adjusted for confounding	141 (58%)	17 (31%)	45 (57%)	79 (71%)

1In the case of nonindependent publications (i.e., publications drawn from the same study population), only counted is the largest (most inclusive) sample analyzed from each study population.
2Publications that presented results from both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were counted as longitudinal. Two publications that used other designs were not included.