Prevalence of recurrent aphthous stomatitis and its related factors in the AZAR cohort population

Abstract

Introduction. Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is one of the most prevalent oral inflammatory ulcerative lesions. Recurrent aphthous stomatitis is characterized by painful ulcers in non-keratinized oral mucosa which affects the quality of life. The aim of this study was estimated prevalence of RAS and its related risk factors among the AZAR cohort population.

Materials and methods. This study is based on the data of the Azar cohort, which has been conducted since 2013 in Shabestar city, located in East Azarbaijan province, on 15,006 adults aged 35 to 70 years. To determine the recurrent aphthous stomatitis, the description of the lesions was provided to the participants and they are asked if they have ever had recurrent aphthous stomatitis. Data collection was based on self-reporting and examination by the doctor of the Azar cohort. People with recurrent aphthous stomatitis were in the aphthous group and the rest of the participants in the Azar cohort were in the control group. Different variables were investigated in two groups: people with aphthous and control group. Demographic characteristics (including age, gender, education level, socio-economic status and habitat), life habits (including smoking status, alcohol consumption and brushing frequency), history of genital aphthous, history of chronic diseases (including hypertension, diabetes, anemia, depression, MS, rheumatoid disease, chronic headache, thyroid disease and food allergy), history of taking supplements (including folic acid, iron, vitamin D tablets, vitamin D ampoules, zinc and multivitamins), body mass index(BMI) and DMFT were extracted. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used for analysis using SPSS software.

Results. The prevalence of recurrent aphthous stomatitis was 23.34%. Multivariate logistic models showed that in people older than 50 years old (p<0.001), people with poor(p<0.001) and very poor (p=0.02) socio-economic level and people with under diploma education (p=0.01) was significantly less reported to suffer from recurrent aphthous stomatitis. smokers(p<0.001) or people with a history of smoking who have quit now (p=0.01) were also significantly less affected by recurrent aphthous stomatitis. It was also reported that genital aphthous (p<0.001), depression (p<0.001), rheumatoid disease (p=0.01) and food allergy (p<0.001) have a significant relationship with more recurrent aphthous stomatitis.

Conclusions. It seems that factors, such as younger age, high socio-economic level, high education, genital aphthous disease, depression, rheumatoid disease and food allergy could be related to RAS prevalence.