Association between Self-Reported Oral Health and Parkinson's Disease: Evidence from UK Biobank

Oral health problem is prevalent in the elderly population which is also at high risk of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the association between self-reported oral health and PD is still unclear. We aimed to explore the association between baseline self-reported oral health (mouth ulcers, painful gums, bleeding gums, loose teeth, toothache, dentures) and future incidence of PD.

Participants were enrolled in the UK Biobank from 2006 to 2010 and those without PD at baseline were included in the current study. We used Cox regression analysis to explore the question and adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, smoking, drinking, ethnicity, education, socioeconomic status, and average total household income before tax.

We included 421,180 participants with a mean age of 56.26 years old, and 46.5% of them were male. And 2,339 participants were diagnosed with PD in the follow-up. Mouth ulcers, loose teeth, dentures, toothache, and bleeding gums were not related to the risk of PD. Painful gums were related to a higher risk of PD (HR: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.12-1.72, p = 0.003), and similar results were reached after adjusting for gene risk (HR: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.12-1.73, p = 0.003), or source of diagnosis (HR: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.12-1.72, p = 0.002), and time of diagnosis (HR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.03-1.63, p = 0.02).

Our study has demonstrated a substantial correlation between painful gums and elevated susceptibility to PD, underscoring the potential advantages of implementing oral health interventions for decreasing the risk of PD.