Journal Article

Association between chronic periodontitis and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease: a retrospective, population-based, matched-cohort study

Chang, Yu-Chao, Chen, Chang-Kai, Wu, Yung-Tsan

2017

Overview

Background Although recent short-term cross-sectional studies have revealed that chronic periodontitis (CP) may be a risk factor for increased cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), systematic reviews and long-term longitudinal studies have provided less clear evidence regarding the relationship between CP and AD. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective cohort study using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan to determine whether patients with CP are at increased risk of developing AD. Methods We conducted a retrospective matched-cohort study using the NHIRD of Taiwan. We identified 9291 patients newly diagnosed with CP between 1997 and 2004. A total of 18,672 patients without CP were matched to the patient cohort according to sex, age, index year, co-morbidity and urbanisation level. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed to evaluate the subsequent risk of AD. Results Patients with CP had a higher prevalence of hyperlipidaemia, depression, traumatic brain injury and co-morbidities, as well as higher urbanisation levels, than those in the unexposed cohort (all p  < 0.01). At the final follow-up, totals of 115 (1.24%) and 208 (1.11%) individuals in the CP exposed and unexposed groups, respectively, had developed AD. Patients with 10 years of CP exposure exhibited a higher risk of developing AD than unexposed groups (adjusted HR 1.707, 95% CI 1.152–2.528, p  = 0.0077). Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that 10-year CP exposure was associated with a 1.707-fold increase in the risk of developing AD. These findings highlight the need to prevent progression of periodontal disease and promote healthcare service at the national level.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,BMC
• Subject: Aged / Alzheimer Disease - epidemiology / Alzheimer's disease / Analysis / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Chronic Periodontitis - epidemiology / Cohort study / Comorbidity / Development and progression / Female / Follow-Up Studies / Geriatric Psychiatry / Geriatrics/Gerontology / Health aspects / Health risk assessment / Humans / Kaplan-Meier Estimate / Male / Middle Aged / Multivariate Analysis / Nationwide population / Neurology / Neurosciences / Patients / Periodontitis / Prevalence / Proportional Hazards Models / Retrospective Studies / Risk Factors / Rural Population / Taiwan - epidemiology / Urban Population