The relationship between dental caries and asthma, age of diagnosis and associated medications based on the data of Azar cohort study

Abstract

Introduction: Due to the growing population of people with asthma in the world, it is necessary to pay attention to their oral and dental health. Investigating factors related to dental caries in people with asthma can play a significant role in maintaining and improving the oral and dental health of these people. Since the Azar cohort study collected comprehensive data in various fields for adults, the aim of our study is to determine the relationship between DMFT index and asthma, the age of diagnosis and related medications in the Azar cohort population. Methods and Materials: Azar cohort study was started in 2013 in Shabestar city located in East Azarbaijan province and on 15000 adults aged 35 to 70 years. In this cross-sectional-analytical study, the part of the data of Azar cohort study related to asthma, age of asthma diagnosis, type of medications used and DMFT index were extracted. Then the data were included in this study for analysis in two groups: people with asthma and the control group (without asthma). The outcome variable was the DMFT index. Negative binomial with loglink was used to analyze the relationship between having asthma, age of asthma diagnosis, type of medications with DMFT index. In addition to assessing the results in the unadjusted model (without adjusting the effect of confounding variables), two regression models were used to adjust the effect of confounding variables including age, sex, socioeconomic status, education, marriage, smoking, alcohol consumption, frequency of toothbrushing, chronic diseases, body mass index and physical activity. Results: In the current study, the data collected for 1614 participants aged 35 to 70 years of the Azar cohort study, including 538 people with asthma and 1076 people in the control group, were analyzed. Among the people with asthma, 8.7% of people used medication in the form of spray and oral, 7.8% in the form of oral, 11.7% in the form of spray, and 71.7% of asthmatic people did not use any medications. According to the age of asthma diagnosis, in 38.3% of people, the duration the disease based on the age of diagnosis was 10 or more than 10 years. In the asthmatic group, the mean of DMFT index was 23.15 ± 8.67 and in the control group, the DMFT index was 21.12 ± 9.24, and the largest part of the DMFT index was related to missing teeth. In the regression analysis, the relationship of DMFT with asthma, duration of disease based on the age of diagnosis and use of medication was not significant but the relationship between DMFT and the variables of age and toothbrushing was significant so that DMFT was more in people who were older and brushed their teeth less than once a day. Conclusion: Considering that the relationship of asthma, duration of disease based on the age of asthma diagnosis and related medications with DMFT index, was not statistically significant, it can be assumed that the history of asthma does not have an effective role on the dental caries. Considering the significant increase in DMFT with increasing age and the significance of the toothbrushing variable, oral health promotion programs at all ages, especially for people with asthma, should be considered.