Prevalence and severity of gingivitis in American adults.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate prevalence and severity of gingivitis in representative American adults.


METHODS
Subjects (1,000) in Loma Linda, California; Seattle, Washington; and Boston, Massachusetts were examined for Löe-Silness Gingivitis Index (GI). Mann-Whitney rank sum test was used to determine significances in the GI between genders. The data among study sites and races were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA on ranks. The correlation of the GI and age was examined by the Spearman rank order correlation. Age differences among three sites were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA.


RESULTS
The race composition of the subjects (mean age 37.9) approximated to the 2004 U.S. Census data. The overall average GI was 1.055. Only 6.1% of subjects showed mean GI<0.50; most (93.9%) were > or = 0.50, with 55.7% > or = 1.00. There was a significant correlation (P<0.001) between the age and GI. The males' GI was significantly higher (P<0.001) than the females'; African-Americans showed a significantly higher GI (P<0.05) than other races except for the Native-Americans.
Li
Yiming
Y
Center for Dental Research, Loma Linda University School of Dentistry, 24876 Taylor Street, Loma Linda, CA 92350, USA. yli@llu.edu
Lee
Sean
S
Hujoel
Philippe
P
Su
Mingfang
M
Zhang
Wu
W
Kim
Jay
J
Zhang
Yun Po
YP
DeVizio
William
W
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D005891:Gingivitis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010512:Periodontal Index; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult