Increased Risk of Primary Sjögren Syndrome in Patients With Periodontitis

Objectives: Many reports have mentioned the association between periodontitis and primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS). However, no cohort study has evaluated the risk of pSS in patients with periodontitis in a large population. In this study, we evaluated the effects of periodontitis on the risk of pSS in a nationwide, population-based retrospective cohort in Taiwan.
Methods: We studied the claims data of the Taiwan population from 2001 to 2012. We identified 76,790 patients with periodontitis from the National Health Insurance Database in Taiwan. We also selected 76,790 controls that were randomly frequency matched by age (in 5 year bands), sex and index year from the general population. We analyzed the risk of pSS by using Cox proportional hazards regression models including sex, age, and comorbidities.
Results: In the cohort, 76,790 patients with periodontitis (mean age=40.8 years) and 76,790 controls (mean age=41.0 years) were followed-up for 8.5 and 8.5 years, respectively. A total of 869 cases of pSS were identified in the periodontitis cohort versus 474 cases in the non-periodontitis cohort. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the incidence rate of pSS was significantly higher in the periodontitis cohort than in the non-periodontitis cohort (adjusted HR: 1.82, 95%, CI: 1.63-2.04).
Conclusions: This nationwide population based cohort study demonstrated that the risk of pSS was significantly higher in patients with periodontitis than in the general population in Taiwan.