Periodontitis and incident diabetes

Background + Aims

• Periodontitis (gum disease) is an inflammatory condition linked to systemic diseases like diabetes.
• Hispanic/Latino adults in the U.S. face a high prevalence of both periodontitis and diabetes, but the link between gum disease and the development of diabetes or prediabetes in this population remains unclear.
• This study aimed to investigate whether gum disease severity influences the risk of developing prediabetes or diabetes over six years in a large cohort of Hispanic/Latino adults.

Materials + Methods

• A retrospective longitudinal study analysing 7,827 Hispanic/Latino adults participants who were:
  • Aged 18–74 years
  • Free of diabetes at baseline
• Visit 1 involved a periodontal health assessment using probing pocket depth (PPD) and clinical attachment loss (CAL)  to classify disease severity into 1 of 2 groups – none/mild or moderate/severe.
• Visit 2 involved blood tests measuring fasting glucose, HbA1c, and oral glucose tolerance to diagnose prediabetes or diabetes.
• Data analyses to examine the association between baseline periodontal disease severity and new cases of prediabetes or diabetes was conducted, accounting for factors like age, weight, smoking, and diet.

Results

• Over 6-years, 38.8% of participants developed prediabetes, and 2.2% developed diabetes. Among those with prediabetes at the start, 19% progressed to diabetes.
• Moderate/severe gum disease was not significantly associated with a higher risk of developing either prediabetes or diabetes after adjusting for other factors.
• Obesity (BMI ≥ 30) appeared to amplify diabetes risk. Participants with both obesity and moderate/severe periodontitis had 2.4 times the risk of developing diabetes compared to non-obese individuals with mild periodontitis.

Limitations