Using Oral Microbiota Data to Design a Short Sucrose Intake Index

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Nutrition Science
• Dental Public Health

Background:

• Excessive sucrose consumption is linked to health issues like dental caries.
• Dietary habits, particularly sugar intake, significantly influence the human oral microbiota composition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To confirm the association between sucrose intake and oral microbiota profiles.
• To develop and validate a food-based index for assessing sucrose consumption.
• To evaluate the index's correlation with oral microbiota and dental caries.

Main Methods:

• Utilized questionnaires to record food intake and preferences in a derivation cohort (n=427).
• Analyzed salivary microbiota using 16S rDNA sequencing.
• Validated the developed sucrose index against oral microbiota and dental caries data in a large population-based cohort (GLIDE, n=105,520).

Main Results:

• Identified distinct oral microbiota clusters based on taxonomic similarities, with high sucrose consumers showing lower species diversity.
• Developed a sucrose index based on food intake and preferences, which correlated with specific bacterial patterns and caries status.
• Validated the sucrose index's effectiveness in capturing clinically relevant variations in sucrose intake across a large population.

Conclusions:

• The developed food-based sucrose index effectively reflects variations in sucrose consumption.
• Dietary information from food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) can be valuable for clinical and epidemiological screening of sucrose intake.
• The index shows promise for assessing oral health risks associated with sugar consumption, though local dietary adjustments may be necessary.