Oral health status and longitudinal cardiometabolic risk in a national sample of young adults

Background: Dental and cardiometabolic diseases are highly prevalent, share many common risk factors, and begin during youth. Despite poor dental health being known to influence dietary behaviors that are in turn linked to cardiometabolic health, the role of oral health on concomitant and future cardiometabolic disease is understudied. We sought to determine the association of oral health with cardiometabolic markers during adolescence and early adulthood.

Methods: Our sample included 11,556 participants with data from waves 1 (when participants were aged 12 to 19 years) and 4 (when they were aged 26 to 32 years) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Multivariable linear and logistic regression separately examined associations between different markers of oral health (that is, missing teeth, periodontal disease, and deferred dental care) and markers of cardiometabolic health (that is, lipids, blood pressure, and body mass index), adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics.

Results: Mean age was 29 years at follow-up (wave 4). In adjusted analyses, deferred dental care during both adolescence (β = 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.6 to 2.0; P = .001) and early adulthood (β = 0.9; 95% CI, 0.4 to 1.3; P < .001) was associated with an increased body mass index during early adulthood. Deferred dental care in early adulthood was also associated with increased systolic (β = 0.9; 95% CI, 0.4 to 1.5; P = .002) and diastolic (β = 1.0; 95% CI, 0.5 to 1.5; P < .001) blood pressure values and an increased likelihood of being hypertensive (odds ratio = 1.2; 95% CI, 1.0 to 1.3; P = .03).

Conclusions: In this nationally representative study deferred dental care during adolescence and concurrently in early adulthood was associated with poorer cardiometabolic disease during early adulthood. Providing better access to dental care may have benefits not only for oral health but also for long-term cardiometabolic health.

Practical implications: Deferred dental care during adolescence and early adulthood, but not recent tooth loss or periodontal disease, is associated with increased risk of cardiometabolic disease.