TY - JOUR T1 - Dietary Starch and Its Relationship with Caries Progression: Long-Term Findings from Finland A1 - Shinya Yamanaka A1 - Clement G Yedjou A1 - Anil Duhan A1 - Anand Venugopal JF - Turkish Journal of Public Health Dentistry JO - Turk J Public Health Dent SN - 3062-3359 Y1 - 2025 VL - 5 IS - 1 DO - 10.51847/OJcNT3vys3 SP - 96 EP - 107 N2 - This study aimed to investigate the link between starch consumption (quantity and source) and progression of dental caries in adults across an 11-year period. Information was collected from 1,679 adults aged 30 years or older who participated in a series of three nationwide surveys in Finland. During the baseline survey, all participants completed a 128-item, semi-structured food frequency questionnaire that had been previously validated. from which daily starch intake (grams and % of total energy) and intake of seven starch-rich food categories (including potatoes, potato derivatives, roots/tubers, refined cereals, pasta, whole grains, and legumes) were estimated. Dental caries status was assessed in clinical examinations and expressed using the DMFT index, analyzed as a repeated measure. Associations between baseline starch intake and 11-year DMFT change were evaluated with linear mixed-effects modeling, adjusted for sociodemographics, lifestyle, sugar consumption, and general health. The average DMFT index was 21.9 (95% CI: 21.6–22.2) in 2000, increasing by 0.47 (95% CI: 0.38–0.56) in 2004/05, and a further 0.33 (95% CI: 0.20–0.45) in 2011. No association was detected between overall starch intake and DMFT progression, regardless of whether intake was expressed in grams/day or as % of energy intake. Among the seven food categories, only pasta intake showed an inverse association with DMFT at baseline, but it was unrelated to changes over the follow-up period. Over an 11-year timeframe, starch intake—neither in total quantity nor by food type—showed no significant relationship with dental caries development in Finnish adults. UR - https://tjphd.com/article/dietary-starch-and-its-relationship-with-caries-progression-long-term-findings-from-finland-3q4nglbx2vlofpa ER -