title: Body mass index and periodontal infection in a sample of non-smoking older individuals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to investigate the association between BMI and periodontal infection in a sample of non-smoking individuals aged 75 years or older.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study sample included 157 non-smoking dentate persons (110 women, 47 men, mean age 80.6 years) belonging to the Geriatric Multidisciplinary Strategy for the Good Care of Older People study in Kuopio, Finland. The data were gathered by interview together with geriatric and oral clinical examination. The outcome variable was the number of teeth with periodontal pockets measuring 4 mm or more in depth. Poisson regression models were used to estimate relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  After adjustment for confounding factors, the relative risk for the number of teeth with deepened periodontal pockets (≥4 mm) was 0.7 (CI: 0.6-0.9) among those with a BMI 25-29.99 and 1.1 (CI: 0.8-1.4) among those with a BMI ≥30, compared with those having a BMI <25.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Within the limitations of this study, including small sample size, possibility of confounding and other biases, the results do not provide evidence that elevated body weight would be a risk for periodontal infection among older people.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oikarinen
authors.forename: A-Mh
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Syrjälä
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Komulainen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knuuttila
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ruoppi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hartikainen
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sulkava
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ylöstalo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D010518:Periodontitis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012907:Smoking
keywords: body mass index; older people; periodontal infection