Montero E, Bujaldón R, Montanya E et al. Cross-sectional association between severe periodontitis and diabetes mellitus: A nation-wide cohort study. J Clin Periodontol 2023; DOI: 10.1111/jcpe.13937.

Severe periodontitis is associated with diabetes in the Spanish population.

This study evaluated the association between severe periodontitis and diabetes mellitus (DM). The di@bet.es epidemiological study is a population-based cohort study aimed to determine the prevalence and incidence of DM in the adult population of Spain. The at-risk sample at the final examination (2016-2017) included 1,751 subjects who completed an oral health questionnaire. This questionnaire, together with demographic and risk factors, had been previously validated to build an algorithm to predict severe periodontitis in the Spanish population. Logistic regression models evaluated the association between severe periodontitis and DM with adjustment for confounding factors. In total, 144 subjects developed DM, which yielded 8% cumulative incidence. Severe periodontitis was detected in 59%, 55% or 69% of the subjects, depending on three selected criteria. All criteria used to define severe periodontitis were associated with DM in unadjusted analysis, but the magnitude of the association decreased after adjusting for significant confounders. The criteria ‘≥50% of teeth with clinical attachment loss ≥5 mm' presented an odds ratio of 4.9 for DM.