Epidemiologic evaluation of Nhanes for environmental Factors and periodontal disease

P. Emecen-Huja, H. F. Li, J. L. Ebersole, J. Lambert, H. Bush

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammation that destroys periodontal tissues caused by the accumulation of bacterial biofilms that can be affected by environmental factors. This report describes an association study to evaluate the relationship of environmental factors to the expression of periodontitis using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES) from 1999–2004. A wide range of environmental variables (156) were assessed in patients categorized for periodontitis (n = 8884). Multiple statistical approaches were used to explore this dataset and identify environmental variable patterns that enhanced or lowered the prevalence of periodontitis. Our findings indicate an array of environmental variables were different in periodontitis in smokers, former smokers, or non-smokers, with a subset of specific environmental variables identified in each population subset. Discriminating environmental factors included blood levels of lead, phthalates, selected nutrients, and PCBs. Importantly, these factors were found to be coupled with more classical risk factors (i.e. age, gender, race/ethnicity) to create a model that indicated an increased disease prevalence of 2–4 fold across the sample population. Targeted environmental factors are statistically associated with the prevalence of periodontitis. Existing evidence suggests that these may contribute to altered gene expression and biologic processes that enhance inflammatory tissue destruction.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8227
JournalScientific Reports
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).

Funding

This work was supported by funding from the Center for Oral Health Research in the University of Kentucky, College of Dentistry and from P20GM103538 and UL1TR000117 from the National Institute of Health.

FundersFunder number
Italian National Health Institute
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)UL1TR000117
University of Kentucky
Peninsula College of Medicine and DentistryP20GM103538

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General

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