Healthy lifestyles and better periodontal health: Results from two large population-based surveys

Abstract

Aim: To ascertain whether healthy lifestyles are associated with periodontal diseases in two large-scale surveys in the US (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey – NHANES) and the UK Biobank. Methods: 9854 US adults and 111 679 UK adults were included in the analyses. A healthy lifestyle score (HLS), ranging between 0 and 5, was calculated based on the reported number of healthy behaviours, including never smoking, no heavy alcohol consumption, top third of leisure-time physical activity, higher dietary quality, and ideal sleep duration. The prevalence of periodontal diseases was the primary outcome in both surveys. In the NHANES, periodontal status was assessed through a full-mouth periodontal examination, while in the UKB, only self-reported periodontal status was available. Results: Multiple regression analyses confirmed that the presence of at least 2–3 healthy behaviours (vs. 0–1) was associated with lower odds of overall and severe periodontitis (ORs 0.5, 0.4–0.6; p