Obesity: Is It A Risk Factor For Periodontitis?

Objectives: Overweight and obesity prevalence is increasing worldwide. Obese individuals are much more likely to have health problems such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes compared to normal weight persons. Recently, obesity was found to be significantly associated with periodontal disease prevalence as measured by clinical attachment loss. The objective of this study was to examine if obesity was associated with periodontitis as measured by radiographic alveolar bone loss. Methods: 400 subjects ³ 18 years old were included for the present study; 200 with Body Mass Index (BMI) ³ 30 Kg/m2 (obese) and 200 < 25 Kg/m2 (non-obese). Alveolar Bone Scores (ABS) was determined for each subject. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the association of obesity and periodontitis as determined by ABS in the study population and stratified by age, gender, and smoking status. Results: Obesity was found to be significantly associated with low ABS in the uni-variate regression analysis (OR = 2.37, 95%CI (1.55-3.63)). After adjusting for age, gender, smoking, occupation, diabetes, and number of teeth present, obese subjects found to be 1.86 times more likely to have low ABS (95%CI (0.99-3.51)) than non-obese ones. Compared to non-obese subjects (reference), the multivariate association was statistically significant among obese individuals < 40 years of age (OR = 2.67, 95%CI (1.09-6.58)) while among individuals ³ 40 years of age the association was statistically insignificant (OR = 1.06, 95%CI (0.57-1.95)). The association was also stronger among females than males (OR = 3.14 vs. 1.95) and for non-smokers than smokers (OR = 3.36 vs. 2.22). Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, obesity is a possible risk factor for periodontitis especially among young adults.