Correlation between diabetes mellitus and periodontitis in Taiwan

Aims: The mechanism underlying the association of diabetes mellitus (DM) and periodontitis is not clear. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between DM and periodontitis. Methods: This study was a retrospective cohort study, which conducted based on the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The study subjects were 39,384 new-onset DM patients who aged above 20 years old from 2005 to 2012. To avoid selection bias, we applied propensity score matching to obtain patients without DM, as the control group. Cox proportional hazard model was used to analyze the risk of periodontitis in patients with DM. Results: After controlling for related variables, Patients with DM had a higher risk for periodontitis compared with the patients without DM (adjusted hazard ratios [aHR] = 1.04, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01–1.08). Patients with hypertension (HTN) had no higher risk for periodontitis (aHR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.92–1.00). Patients with dyslipidemia and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients both had a higher risk for periodontitis (aHR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.19–1.34; aHR = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.19–1.67). Conclusions: There is a correlation between DM and periodontitis. Patients with DM may have a higher risk of incident periodontitis. Besides, age, HTN, dyslipidemia, and RA are also associated with incident periodontitis.