Association between quality of sleep and chronic periodontitis: A case-control study in Malaysian population

Periodontitis is a public health concern since it is a major factor in tooth loss worldwide and has association with many systemic diseases. Sleep is a complex and essentially biological process and a critical factor for maintaining mental and physical health. Since inflammation is characteristic of both chronic periodontitis and sleep deprivation, few studies in recent years present the contradictory results regarding this potential association. The objective of the present study was to investigate the association between quality of sleep and chronic periodontitis.

A total of 200 individuals participated in this study. All participants underwent a comprehensive clinical periodontal examination. Case-control were identified using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/American Academy of Periodontology case definitions for periodontal disease. The quality of sleep was assessed by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to test the influence of variables (quality of sleep, age, sex, ethnicity, education, and socioeconomic status), in the occurrence of periodontitis. Odds ratio (OR) and respective confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated and reported. P =0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The prevalence of poor quality of sleep was 56.75% in cases (periodontitis group) and 43.24% in control group. There was positive association between quality of sleep and chronic periodontitis (OR = 3.04; 95% CI = 1.42-6.5; P = 0.004). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, only the age was significantly related to the periodontitis (OR = 1.11; 95% CI = 1.07-1.41; P < 0.001), other variables failed to reach the significant level.

Poor quality of sleep was significantly associated with chronic periodontitis. Only the age was significantly related to periodontitis among the other covariable measured.