Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Sustainable development goal 13 centres on calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its
impacts. The aim of this scoping review was to map the published literature for existing evidence on the association
between the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 and early childhood caries (ECC).
METHODS: The scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. In August 2023, a search was conducted in PubMed, Web
of Science, and Scopus using search terms related to SDG13 and ECC. Only English language publications were
extracted. There was no restriction on the type of publications included in the study. A summary of studies that met
the inclusion criteria was conducted highlighting the countries where the studies were conducted, the study designs
employed, the journals (dental/non-dental) in which the studies were published, and the findings. In addition, the
SDG13 indicators to which the study findings were linked was reported.
RESULTS: The initial search yielded 113 potential publications. After removing 57 duplicated papers, 56 publications
underwent title and abstract screening, and two studies went through full paper review. Four additional papers were
identified from websites and searching the references of the included studies. Two of the six retrieved articles were
from India, and one was China, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom respectively. One paper was based
on an intervention simulation study, two reported findings from archeologic populations and three papers that were
commentaries/opinions. In addition, four studies were linked to SDG 13.1 and they suggested an increased risk for
caries with climate change. Two studies were linked to SDG 13.2 and they suggested that the practice of pediatric
dentistry contributes negatively to environmental degradation. One study provided evidence on caries prevention
management strategies in children that can reduce environmental degradation.
CONCLUSION: The evidence on the links between SDG13 and ECC suggests that climate change may increase the
risk for caries, and the management of ECC may increase environmental degradation. However, there are caries
prevention strategies that can reduce the negative impact of ECC management on the environment. Context specific and inter-disciplinary research is needed to generate evidence for mitigating the negative bidirectional relationships
between SDG13 and ECC.
