[Association between periodontal pockets and health-related behaviors of workers]

Periodontal disease is a chronic disease caused by bacterial infection, and frequently develops in adulthood. As the disease is closely related to lifestyle, it is important to clarify its relationship with health-related behaviors to provide effective health instructions targeting its prevention. In this study, we focused on periodontal pockets with advanced periodontal disease to clarify the health-related behaviors associated with the presence or absence of periodontal pockets.

The subjects were 3,142 employees (male: N=2,429, female: N=713; 42.4 ± 10.5 years, Range 20-59 years) of one company, which had provided all employees with an oral health program in 2002. Participants with a Community Periodontal Index code of ≤2 and ≥3 were classified as those without and with periodontal pockets, respectively. To clarify the health-related behaviors associated with the presence or absence of periodontal pockets, we conducted multivariate logistic regression analysis, with presence/absence of periodontal pockets as the dependent variable, and items of health-related behavior investigated in 2002 as independent variables, and calculated the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) adjusted for sex, age group and occupation.

The factor most strongly correlated with the presence of periodontal pockets was non-use of dental floss (OR=1.95 (95%CI: 1.57-2.41)), followed by smoking (OR=1.71 (95%CI: 1.44-2.03)), and tooth-brushing habits (≤once a day: OR=1.33 (95%CI: 1.10-1.61)).

Our results suggest that, to promote oral health program at the worksite, it is important to provide health education and instructions to encourage the use of dental floss, a daily tooth-brushing habit, and smoking cessation.