Association of short sleep with risk of periodontal disease: A meta-analysis and Mendelian randomization study

The aim of this meta-analysis and Mendelian randomization (MR) study was to assess the association between short sleep and periodontal disease, including tooth loss and periodontitis.

The meta-analysis of relevant studies was conducted to assess the association between short sleep and periodontal disease. MR analyses were conducted with the inverse-variance-weighted (IVW) method, weighted median method, MR-Egger method, and MR-Robust Adjusted Profile Score (RAPS) method to assess the causal effect of short sleep on tooth loss and periodontitis.

Seven cross-sectional studies involving 40,196 individuals were included in the meta-analysis. The association between short sleep and periodontal disease was not statistically significant (odds ratios (OR) =1.13, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.99, 1.28; p = 0.076). In the MR analysis, we did not observe statistically significant causal associations of genetically determined short sleep with tooth loss (β: -0.056; 95% CI: -0.181 to 0.068; p = 0.376) and periodontitis (β: -0.112; 95% CI: -0.340 to 0.117; p = 0.339).

Short sleep is not associated with the risk of periodontal disease according to current evidence. Future studies need to pay attention to the measurement of sleep duration, the choice of statistical models, and other domains of sleep health.