Number of children with developmental insufficiency of oral function: A study using Japan's national database

Introduction

In 2018, disease of developmental insufficiency of oral function (DIOF) was added to the Japanese national dental health insurance for typically developing children. We aimed to confirm the actual number of typically developing children with DIOF using the national database (NDB) and estimate the incidence rate of DIOF among such children.

Methods

The number of children with DIOF was calculated using the NDB in 2020, 2021, and 2022 and activities in the June 2023 of Public Health Insurance. We based the population data on the annual report of single year current population estimates in 2022.

Results

Using the 2022 population data of children aged 0–17 y (17,738,000 children) and the 2022 DIOF patient data, we calculated that the incidence rate was 2431.3/100,000 children (2.4%) in 2022. The number of these children increased each year between June 2020, June 2021, and June 2022; in June 2022, there were almost 1.3 times the number of visits as that in June 2021. There were 130,259 visits based on the estimated DIOF outpatient data in June 2023, 1.1 times that of June 2022.

Conclusion

This study is the first to report the incidence rate of DIOF in typically developing children in Japan. However, we only assessed outpatients; there may be more affected children in Japan. Therefor DIOF examination is a necessary public health approach to support oral function development and to reduce the incidence of DIOF.