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Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition | 4/2016 news 32 Birthcohortstudyconfirms linkbetweenoverweight andperiodontitis Beingoverweight mayincrease theriskofdevelopingperiodontitis,newfindingsofauniquelong-term studyhavesuggested. ByDTI ADELAIDE, Australia/PELOTAS, BRAZIL: Inves- tigating the link between overweight and peri- odontitis, a team of researchers has found that people with a higher body mass index do in- deed have an increased risk of developing peri- odontitis compared with individuals of normal weight. In the study, researchers from Australia and Brazil followed a group of 539 Brazilians frombirthuntiltheageof31. Owing to lifestyle changes, dietary habits, stress and lack of exercise, the prevalence of over- weight and obesity has shown a gradual in- crease in many countries. Various studies have linked overweight and obesity with various sys- temicconditions,includingahigherriskofperi- odontal disease. However, uncer- tainty persists regarding the causal relationshipofsuchconditions. In the study, researchers followed a birth cohort of 539 Brazilians for a period of 31 years. Over the course of the study, the participants un- derwent regular periodontal ex- aminations comprising full-mouth probing at six sites per tooth using a PCP2 dental probe. In addition, the anthropometric measures and hab- its of each individual were assessed duringthelife-course. Overall, periodontitis risk under no intervention was 33.3 per cent, 14.3 per cent and 14.7 per cent for any periodontitis, moderate or severe periodontitis, and combined bleed- ing on probing (BOP) and clinical attachment loss (CAL), respectively. Regarding the impact of weight, the results showed that overweight and obesity increased the risk of all out- comes. Specifically, the overall risk ofperiodontitiswas11percenthigh- er in overweight individuals and 22 per cent higher in obese patients. As for moderate and severe periodon- titis, the risk was 12 per cent and 27 per cent higher, respectively. Over- weight increased the risk of CAL and BOP by 21 per cent and obesity by 57 percent. According to the researchers, the impact of overweight and obesity was even greater when combined with unhealthy habits. Based on the findings, it is worth emphasising that a common risk factor approach would be the most effective means ofpreventionandtreatmentofperi- odontal disease, lead researcher Dr Gustavo Nascimento from the Fed- eralUniversityofPelotastoldDental TribuneOnline. Prof. Marco Peres from the Univer- sity of Adelaide said that the study’s design in investigating the link be- tween overweight and periodonti- tis is unique in the literature. “First it has a longitudinal design using a population-based cohort study; and secondly, it has a longitudinal data analysis by using a statistical tech- nique—g-formula—which allows ustotakeintoaccounttime-varying confounders and to simulate differ- ent scenarios under hypothetical simultaneous conditions, such as obesity plus smoking, alcohol, inad- equatediet,etc.,”hesaid. Peres, who is also a councillor of the International Association for Dental Research’s Global Oral Health In- equalities Research Network for the Asia-Pacific region, presented the re- sultsofthestudy,titled“Overweight andobesityimpactonperiodontitis: A Brazilian birth cohort”, on 23 June in Seoul in South Korea at the 94th General Session and Exhibition of theIADR.