Autoimmune Diseases and Oral Health: 30-Year Follow-Up of a Swedish Cohort
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Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
2
Department of Dental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, BOX 4064, 14104 Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Dent. J. 2018, 6(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/dj6010001
Received: 26 August 2017
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Revised: 19 November 2017
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Accepted: 19 December 2017
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Published: 22 December 2017
Oral infections up-regulate a number of systemic inflammatory reactions that, in turn, play a role in the development of systemic diseases. We investigated the association between oral health and autoimmune diseases in a cohort of Swedish adults. Hypothesis was that poor oral health associates with incidence of autoimmune diseases. Overall 1676 subjects aged 30–40 years old from Stockholm County (Sweden) participated in this study in 1985. Subjects were randomly selected from the registry file of Stockholm region and were followed-up for 30 years. Their hospital and open health care admissions (World Health Organization ICD 9 and 10 codes) were recorded from the Swedish national health registers. The association between the diagnosed autoimmune disease and the oral health variables were statistically analyzed. In all, 50 patients with autoimmune diagnoses were detected from the data. Plaque index was significantly higher in the autoimmune disease group (≥median 35 (70%) vs. ˂median 872 (54%), p = 0.030). No statistical difference was found in gingival index, calculus index, missing teeth, periodontal pockets, smoking or snuff use between patients with and without autoimmune disease. Our study hypothesis was partly confirmed. The result showed that subjects with a higher plaque index, marker of poor oral hygiene, were more likely to develop autoimmune diseases in 30 years.
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Keywords:
autoimmune disease; oral health; association; plaque index; follow-up study
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MDPI and ACS Style
Julkunen, A.; Heikkinen, A.M.; Söder, B.; Söder, P.-Ö.; Toppila-Salmi, S.; Meurman, J.H. Autoimmune Diseases and Oral Health: 30-Year Follow-Up of a Swedish Cohort. Dent. J. 2018, 6, 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/dj6010001
AMA Style
Julkunen A, Heikkinen AM, Söder B, Söder P-Ö, Toppila-Salmi S, Meurman JH. Autoimmune Diseases and Oral Health: 30-Year Follow-Up of a Swedish Cohort. Dentistry Journal. 2018; 6(1):1. https://doi.org/10.3390/dj6010001
Chicago/Turabian StyleJulkunen, Anna, Anna M. Heikkinen, Birgitta Söder, Per-Östen Söder, Sanna Toppila-Salmi, and Jukka H. Meurman. 2018. "Autoimmune Diseases and Oral Health: 30-Year Follow-Up of a Swedish Cohort" Dentistry Journal 6, no. 1: 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/dj6010001
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