Loss of Teeth and Coronary Heart Disease Mortality in Older Patients

Objective: Most of the existing studies examined the relationship between periodontitis and coronary heart disease (CHD) with a broad age range. This study aims to examine whether periodontitis is as-sociated with increased CHD mortality in older patients.Methods: 1385 patients who underwent digital radiographic examination, and aged 75 and above, were included in this retrospective cohort study. We used Cox proportional hazards regression and com-peting risk hazard models to compute hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) regarding CHD mortality. Results: Significantly associations were found between loss of teeth and CHD mortality. The HR (95% CI) was 1.04 (1.01, 1.07) after adjusting for relevant confounding variables.Results from the stratification analysis indicated that female, aged 80 and above, body mass index (BMI) < 25, non-smokers and non-drinkers may face increased risks.Conclusion: Loss of teeth increased the risk of CHD mortality in the older patients, particularly in female, aged 80 and above, BMI < 25, non-smokers and non-drinkers.Copyright (c) 2022, Taiwan Society of Geriatric Emergency & Critical Care Medicine.