Associations between lifestyle, oral hygiene status and circulatory system

Abstract

Background. Research from the former studies brought the evidence about inflammatory origin of cardiovascular diseases and their possible connections with oral hygiene status. The possibility of addressing this problem as well as the inclusion of lifestyle habits into the study led to this research, seeking to fulfil these tasks: to assess lifestyle characteristics of the study subjects (diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, sleep, oral care habits), perceived stress, to determine their oral hygiene status, to evaluate their subjective health and diagnoses, indicative of the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) with the possibility to determine associations between the subjects’ lifestyle characteristics, oral hygiene, subjective health status, and indicators of circulatory diseases. Aim. The aim of this research was to investigate the lifestyle peculiarities of the residents of suburban districts in the Kaunas region and to assess the associations with oral hygiene status and indicators of circulatory system diseases. Methods. This cross-sectional study was carried out in Kaunas district dental clinics in 2023. Adult patients (n = 172) completed an anonymous questionnaire consisting of questions on lifestyle, perceived stress, subjective evaluation of health and diagnosed CVD. Oral hygiene was assessed using the Silness-Loe Oral Hygiene Index (PLI) and the Periodontal Health Index (CPITN). For each respondent, the number of decayed (K), filled (P) and erupted (I) teeth were summed to give an individual KPI index. The chi-square (χ2 ) test, paired Z-tests with Bonferroni correction, and Spearman’s correlation coefficient were used for statistical analysis. Results. The research detected that worse PLI was significantly associated with smoking (r = –0.183, p < 0.05), shorter sleep duration (r = –0.172, p < 0.05), consumption of alcoholic beverages (r = –0.157, p < 0.05). Greater need for dental treatment was significantly associated with longer sitting time (r = –0.244, p < 0.05), shorter sleep duration (r = –0.184; p < 0.05), consumption of alcoholic beverages (r = –0.165, p < 0.05), smoking (r = –0.152, p < 0.05). Diagnosed arterial hypertension was associated with higher KPI (r = –0.306, p < 0.05), PLI (r = –0.303, p < 0.05), and CPITN (r = –0.328, p < 0.05) indicators. Higher cholesterol levels were significantly related to a higher KPI index (r = –0.343, p < 0.05). The presence of chronic non-communicable diseases demonstrated associations with higher CPITN (r = –0.169, p < 0.05). Higher stress levels were not significantly associated with KPI (r = 0.065, p > 0.05), PLI (r = –0.039, p > 0.05) and CPITN (r = –0.060, p > 0.05). Conclusions. Worse dental health indicators were associated with worse lifestyle and CVD health indicators (arterial hypertension and higher cholesterol levels). Perceived stress levels showed no correlation with oral health indicators.