Obesity and periodontitis in 60-70-year-old men

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. Abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by Dr Trevor Watts.

Abstract

Obesity was associated with periodontitis, when the stronger effects of smoking were taken into account.

Main

Linden G, Patterson C et al. J Clin Periodontol 2007; 34: 461–466

Obesity is associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some tumours and also periodontitis. The present study investigated 2,010 men from a cohort study of myocardial infarct, and 1,362 were examined periodontally. Two levels of periodontitis were categorised as low or high threshold.

Normal BMI (<25 kg/m²) was present in 336 men, 728 were overweight (25-30) and 298 were obese (>30). Over the last 10 years, prevalence of obesity had increased 115%. Smoking had the strongest effects on periodontitis, but there was an association between current BMI and low threshold periodontitis (OR = 1.8; P = 0.004). BMI at age 21 was unrelated to current periodontitis.