Dietary fluoride intake of children aged 3-7 years in remote areas of Thailand

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to measure dietary fluoride intake in children aged 3-7 years, to correlate dietary fluoride and fluoride content in water for use in schools and to estimate fluoride gained from the daily diet. Fifty food samples were collected in 45 schools under the jurisdiction of the Border Patrol Police Department. The schools were sampled by multiple stratified cluster random sampling. The food samples were weighed, then measured for fluoride content by a microdiffusion method. Statistical analysis was conducted using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Dietary fluoride in each age group was compared by Student's t test. Analysis for the relationship between dietary fluoride and fluoride content in water was done using Kendall's tau-b. Our results showed that the mean of dietary fluoride in lunch was 0.08 +/- 0.1 ppm. There were no differences when comparing dietary fluoride between different regions of Thailand (p = 0.07). No correlation was found between dietary fluoride and fluoride content in water used in different schools (r(tau) = 0.017, p = 0.85). The daily dietary fluoride intake in children aged 3-6 years was 0.002-0.004 mgF/kg bw/day, in children aged 7 years was 0.003-0.004 mgF/kg bw/day in boys and 0.002-0.004 mgF/kg bw/day in girls.