Prevalence of Systemic Conditions Among Filipino Periodontal Patients

Objectives: There is a growing body of evidence that periodontitis is associated with a number of systemic diseases. However, there is limited data on the prevalence of systemic comorbidities in Filipino periodontitis patients. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of systemic conditions among Filipino patients at a university periodontal clinic.
Methods: The medical and dental records of all patients (n=1549) who went for periodontal consult at the university clinic within two academic years (2016-2017 and 2017-2018) were examined. Periodontal diagnoses had been previously determined using the 1999 classification of periodontal diseases, while listed medical conditions were self-reported. The prevalence of various systemic conditions in 715 periodontitis patients was compared to the prevalence recorded in 834 gingivitis patients. Fisher’s exact test was performed to evaluate the difference in the prevalence of comorbidities between groups.
Results: Systemic conditions were found in 318 of 715 (44.5%) periodontitis patients, which was significantly higher than the 36.3% of 834 gingivitis patients with self-reported comorbidities (p=0.001). For all patients, allergies and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) were the top comorbidities (16.46% and 13.17% respectively). The prevalence of hypertension (18.60% versus 5.04%), CVD including hypertension (20.42% versus 6.95%), arthritis (9.37% versus 3.0%), and diabetes (5.73% versus 0.84%) were all significantly higher in patients with periodontitis as opposed to those with gingivitis (p<0.001). Meanwhile, asthma (9.23% versus 5.31%), respiratory diseases including asthma (12.95% versus 8.25%), and allergies (18.82% versus 13.71%) were significantly higher in patients with gingivitis (p=0.003, p=0.003, p=0.007, respectively). No difference was found in the prevalence of osteoporosis between groups (p=0.341).
Conclusions: Data from this study show that compared with gingivitis patients, the prevalence of various systemic conditions among Filipino periodontitis patients differs significantly. A greater percentage of those with periodontitis have CVD, arthritis and diabetes, but with significantly lower frequency of respiratory diseases and allergies.