Camila Hernández-Zamorano; María Vega Jara & Héctor Fuentes-Barría
Summary
The human being in the course of evolution has changed the perception of food, leaving aside the consumption of meat and its derivatives due to ethical and moral factors, where it is known that diet has great relevance in general health, being a factor of risk for the appearance of various diseases, which is why saliva has been used as a diagnostic tool. To describe and compare the Mediterranean Diet index according to salivary pH in female dentistry students between 20 and 30 years old. Comparative cross-sectional descriptive study. Seventeen adult women selected by non-probabilistic criteria participated in the Dentistry career, who were evaluated in their Mediterranean Diet index and salivary pH. Student's T test for independent samples and Mann-Whitney U test were applied to compare characteristics between groups based on salivary pH. There are significant differences between groups for the frequency of consumption of whole grains (p = 0.026), lean meats (p = 0.021) and salivary pH (p < 0.001). There is a predominance towards low adherence to a Mediterranean diet, with significant differences in the frequency of consumption of whole grains and lean meats, the consumption of these being an indicator of oral risk determined by pH.
KEY WORDS: mouth; hydrogen-ion concentration; feeding behavior; oral health.
How to cite this article
HERNÁNDEZ-ZAMORANO, C; VEGA, J. M. & FUENTES-BARRÍA, H. Mediterranean Diet Index and salivary pH in adult women. Observational study. Int. J. Odontostomat., 17(2):155-159, 2023.