The relationship of dental caries with depression; sleep duration and use of associated medications based on the data of Azar cohort study

Abstract

Introduction: Oral and dental health can be affected by various factors, including the mental health of people. Considering the increase in the prevalence of depression, investigating the factors related to tooth decay in these patients can play a significant role in maintaining and improving the oral and dental health of these people.Considering that in the Azar cohort study, comprehensive data has been collected in various fields, the present study analyzes the relationship between depression, sleep duration and the use of related drugs with DMFT index (decayed, missing, filled teeth) in the Azar cohort population.

Methods and materials: The Azar cohort study was started in Shabestar city in 2013 between about 15000 adults aged 35 to 70 years. In this cross-sectional study, the data collected in the initial phase of the Azar cohort study related to depression, sleep duration and the use of related drugs and the amount of DMFT index were statistically analyzed. The inclusion criteria were: 1. The group with depression includes all people from the Azar cohort population who answered “ yes" to the question in the Azar cohort questionnaire about having depression which had been diagnosed by a doctor. 2. The control group includes people who answered “no” to this question and they were randomly selected after matching age and sex. Exclusion criteria were: 1. Individuals with complete edentulism 2. Incomplete data. 1369 people in the depression group and 2813 people in the control group (4182 in total) were analyzed. Medicines related to depression were investigated in two groups of SSRI and TCA. The data related to the duration of sleep and related drugs were also analyzed in people with depression and the control group. Negative binomial with loglink was used to analyze the relationship between DMFT and depression and related drugs. In addition to unadjusted regression model (without considering the effect of confounding variables), two regression models were used to adjust the effect of confounding variables such as gender, age, educational level, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass index, socio-economic status, physical activity level, tooth brushing frequency and sleep duration.

Results: 4182 people were included in the study, which mean DMFT was 15.12. The results of this research showed that there was no significant relationship between the DMFT index and depression and the use of drugs related to depression. The mean of DMFT index and its components did not show any significant difference based on sleep duration. In the regression models, increasing age and smoking had a significant relationship with increasing DMFT index. Conclusion: In the present study, there was no significant relationship between the DMFT index and depression and the use of related drugs, but since the mean DMFT index in people with depression was higher than the control group, it is suggested to conduct further studies with a suitable design in this field. Since the increasing age, showed significant relationship with increasing DMFT, oral health at all ages, especially for people with depression, should be considered.