Jẹdíjẹdí, free sugar consumption and early childhood caries experience in Ile-Ife, Nigeria: a cultural dimension to dental caries risk
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background Jẹ̀díjẹ̀dí is a Yoruba ethnomedical gastrointestinal phenomenon associated with reduced refined carbohydrate consumption. This study assessed the associations between maternal belief in “jẹ̀díjẹ̀dí” and age of sugar introduction into children's diets, daily frequency of refined carbohydrate consumption between meals, and early childhood caries (ECC) experience in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Methods This study involved a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data collected from 878 mother-child dyads residing in Ile-Ife Central Local Government Area between December 2024 and January 2025. Participants were selected through a multi-stage random sampling process. Data were collected using structured, interviewer-administered questionnaires as well as clinical dental examinations that used the decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft) index. Three separate multivariable logistic regression models were employed to assess the association between maternal belief in jẹ̀díjẹ̀dí and three oral health outcomes (age of introduction of sugar into diet, frequency of consumption of refined carbohydrate between meals daily, and ECC experience). These models adjusted for covariates (socioeconomic status as a contextual factor; the child's age, sex, use of fluoride toothpaste, and toothbrushing frequency as child-level factors; and the mother's age and knowledge of caries prevention as mother-level factors). Results Among the 878 children included in the study, 538 (61.3%) had been introduced to refined carbohydrates before their first birthday, 202 (23.0%) consumed refined carbohydrates more than three times per day between meals, 713 (81.2%) expressed belief in jẹ̀díjẹ̀dí, while 70 (8.0%) children have ECC. Maternal belief in jẹ̀díjẹ̀dí was associated with non-significant trends suggesting a possible delay in sugar introduction (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.119; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.776–1.614; p = 0.547) and a lower frequency of refined carbohydrate consumption (AOR: 1.412; 95% CI: 0.942–2.115; p = 0.095). There was no significant association observed between belief in jẹ̀díjẹ̀dí and the presence of ECC (AOR: 1.002; 95% CI: 0.516–1.947; p = 0.995). Conclusion While maternal belief in jẹ̀díjẹ̀dí was not significantly associated with the oral health outcomes, it demonstrated a tendency toward protective dietary practices. Future studies should explore leveraging jẹ̀díjẹ̀dí within culturally tailored ECC prevention programs.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".