Periodontal disease in patients with chronic coronary heart disease: Prevalence and association with cardiovascular risk factors

There are reported links between periodontal disease (PD) and cardiovascular (CV) risk but data are lacking, especially from populations with established coronary heart disease (CHD). This study describes self-reported indicators of PD and associations with CV risk factors in a global stable CHD population.

A total of 15,828 participants in the global STABILITY trial underwent a physical examination, blood sampling, and completed a lifestyle questionnaire. They reported remaining number of teeth (none, 1–14, 15–20, 21–25 or 26–32 (all)) and frequency of gum bleeding (never/rarely, sometimes, often or always). Adjusted linear and logistic regression models assessed associations between tooth loss, gum bleeding, and socioeconomic and CV risk factors.

A total of 40.9% of participants had <15 remaining teeth; 16.4% had no teeth; and 25.6% reported gum bleeding with large differences in prevalence among countries, regions and ethnic groups. Less tooth loss was associated with lower levels of glucose, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, waist circumference and hs-CRP; higher estimated glomerular filtration rate; decreased odds for diabetes and smoking, and increased odds for higher education, alcohol consumption and work stress. Gum bleeding was associated with higher LDL cholesterol and systolic blood pressure; decreased odds for smoking, but increased odds for higher education, alcohol consumption and stress.

Self-reported indicators of PD were common in this chronic CHD population and were associated with an increasing socioeconomic and CV risk factor burden. However, causality between self-reported PD and CV risk and outcome needs further investigation.