Periodontitis Is Associated With Higher Blood Pressure and Pulse Wave Velocity in Late Adolescence: A...

We hypothesized that periodontal tissue disruption and vascular dysfunction may coexist in adolescence, indicating that early manifestations of vascular risk may already be detectable at this stage of the life course.

A population-based sample of 2515 adolescents aged 18-19 years was obtained from the RPS Cohort and additional sources. We examined the relationships between Periodontitis (a latent variable representing the shared variance of bleeding on probing, probing depth ≥ 4 mm, and clinical attachment loss ≥ 3 mm) and the Vascular Risk Phenotype (a latent variable formed by carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, systolic and diastolic blood pressure). Socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol, and obesity were adjusted in structural equation models.

Periodontitis and Vascular Risk Phenotype were correlated [Standardized Coefficient (SC): 0.100; p = 0.004]. A higher socioeconomic status was negatively associated with both Periodontitis (SC: -0.112; p < 0.001) and Vascular Risk Phenotype (SC: -0.061; p = 0.04). The strongest association was observed between obesity and the Vascular Risk Phenotype (SC: 0.393; p < 0.001), followed by its association with Periodontitis (SC: 0.114; p < 0.001).

Periodontal and vascular alterations appear to co-occur and may represent early manifestations of cardiovascular risk influenced by shared socioeconomic and metabolic determinants.