All of the following are DEMOGRAPHIC characteristics associated with caries experience EXCEPT one. Which is the EXCEPTION?

Correct answer: C. Nutrition and dietary sugar intake

• A. SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS — income, education, insurance coverage — is a demographic variable and one of the strongest single predictors of caries burden, operating through access to care, fluoride exposure and diet.
• B. SEX is a standard demographic variable. Differences in caries experience between males and females are consistently reported in population surveys.
• C. CORRECT — this is the exception. NUTRITION is a BEHAVIOURAL or dietary risk factor, not a demographic one. Demographic variables describe WHO a person is — fixed or slowly changing population characteristics recorded on a census. What a person eats describes what they DO, and unlike the demographic variables it is directly modifiable through counselling. This distinction matters when you design a study: demographics are used to describe and stratify the sample, behaviours are the exposures you actually try to change.
• D. AGE is a core demographic variable and a strong caries correlate — the caries pattern shifts across the lifespan from occlusal pit-and-fissure lesions in children to root surface caries in older adults with recession.

Note: Sort risk factors into three buckets: DEMOGRAPHIC (age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, education), BEHAVIOURAL (diet, oral hygiene, tobacco, dental attendance) and BIOLOGICAL (salivary flow, bacterial load, existing restorations). Exam items frequently hinge on placing one factor in the wrong bucket.