Abdominal Obesity Modifies Long-Term Associations between Periodontitis and Systemic Inflammation

Methods: The study sample comprised 2622 subjects from the Study of Health in Pomerania with complete 5- and 11-year follow-ups. Periodontitis was assessed by probing depth and clinical attachment level. Multilevel regression analyses were applied to evaluate associations between periodontitis measures and fibrinogen/WBC count. We adjusted for common cardiovascular risk factors and stratified analyses by abdominal obesity (P for interaction <0.05).

Results: In lean subjects, beta-coefficients of mean probing depth were B=0.06 (0.03-0.09; P=0.001) for fibrinogen and B=0.21 (0.11-0.31; P<0.001) for WBC count. Consistently, increased mean clinical attachment levels were associated with increased fibrinogen levels (B=0.03 (0.01-0.04; P=0.002)) and increased WBC counts (B=0.11 (0.06-0.15; P<0.001)). For abdominally obese subjects, relations between periodontitis measures and levels of inflammation markers were non-significant.

Conclusion: In lean subjects, but not in obese subjects, periodontitis affected systemic inflammation in a significant dose-dependent manner. Results considerably contribute to the discussion on whether and how periodontitis is linked to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases.