Bias in estimating the cross-sectional smoking, alcohol, obesity and diabetes associations with moderate-severe periodontitis in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study: comparison of full versus partial-mouth estimates.

Pubmed ID: 26076661

Pubmed Central ID: PMC4509916

Journal: Journal of clinical periodontology

Publication Date: July 1, 2015

Affiliation: Department of Dental Ecology, School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

MeSH Terms: Humans, Male, Female, Risk Factors, United States, Cohort Studies, Middle Aged, Smoking, Prevalence, Diabetes Complications, Prospective Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Alcohol Drinking, Obesity, Sensitivity and Specificity, Nutrition Surveys, Atherosclerosis, Gingival Recession, Periodontal Attachment Loss, Periodontal Index, Periodontal Pocket, Dental Care, Periodontitis, Bias, White People, Black or African American

Grants: HHSN268201100005C, HHSN268201100006C, HHSN268201100007C, HHSN268201100008C, HHSN268201100009C, HHSN268201100010C, HHSN268201100011C, HHSN268201100012C, T90 DE021986, 5T90 DE021986 -04, HHSN268201100009I, HHSN268201100005G, HHSN268201100008I, HHSN268201100011I, HHSN268201100005I, HHSN268201100007I

Authors: Preisser JS, Beck JD, Akinkugbe AA, Saraiya VM, Offenbacher S

Cite As: Akinkugbe AA, Saraiya VM, Preisser JS, Offenbacher S, Beck JD. Bias in estimating the cross-sectional smoking, alcohol, obesity and diabetes associations with moderate-severe periodontitis in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study: comparison of full versus partial-mouth estimates. J Clin Periodontol 2015 Jul;42(7):609-21. Epub 2015 Jul 14.

Studies:

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether partial-mouth protocols (PRPs) result in biased estimates of the associations between smoking, alcohol, obesity and diabetes with periodontitis. METHODS: Using a sample (n = 6129) of the 1996-1998 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, we used measures of probing pocket depth and clinical attachment level to identify moderate-severe periodontitis. Adjusting for confounders, unconditional binary logistic regression estimated prevalence odds ratios (POR) and 95% confidence limits. Specifically, we compared POR for smoking, alcohol, obesity and diabetes with periodontitis derived from full-mouth to those derived from 4-PRPs (Ramfjörd, National Health and Nutrition Examination survey-III, modified-NHANES-IV and 42-site-Random-site selection-method). Finally, we conducted a simple sensitivity analysis of periodontitis misclassification by changing the case definition threshold for each PRP. RESULTS: In comparison to full-mouth PORs, PRP PORs were biased in terms of magnitude and direction. Holding the full-mouth case definition at moderate-severe periodontitis and setting it at mild-moderate-severe for the PRPs did not consistently produce POR estimates that were either biased towards or away from the null in comparison to full-mouth estimates. CONCLUSIONS: Partial-mouth protocols result in misclassification of periodontitis and may bias epidemiologic measures of association. The magnitude and direction of this bias depends on choice of PRP and case definition threshold used.