Associations between periodontal disease severity and selected cardiometabolic risk factors

The objective was to explore associations between periodontal disease severity and cardiometabolic risk factors, including body mass index, age, Type 2 diabetes mellitus risk, sex, and hypertension in patients at an urban dental school clinic.

A cross-sectional study design was used to analyze electronic health record data, including periodontal status, demographic characteristics, cardiometabolic risk factors and the American Diabetes Association Diabetes Risk Test (DRT) score. Chi-square tests and ordinal logistic regression were conducted using SAS 9.4.

Of those with available data (n = 6,778), 44% were male, 70.2% were overweight/obese, and the mean age was 50.9 (SD = 16.6) years. Associations between PD severity and body mass index, sex, age, DRT score, and hypertension were statistically significant (all P .0001) in bivariate analyses. Using logistic regression, hypertension (P = .0006), sex (P .0001), and age (P .0001) were significant predictors of severe periodontal disease, which was most common in those with hypertension (35.9%), males (31.7%), and those > 60 years (36.6%). The odds of having severe periodontal disease for those with hypertension were 1.2 times that of those without hypertension. Males were 1.7 times more likely to have severe periodontal disease than females. Those aged 40 to 49 years, 50 to 59 years, and > 60 years were 2.9, 4.2, and 4.3 times more likely to have severe periodontal disease than those who were 18 to 39 years, respectively.

All cardiometabolic risk factors were associated with periodontal disease severity in bivariate analyses. In the logistic regression model, being older, male, and having hypertension were significant predictors of periodontal disease severity. Future research is needed with a more diverse sample.