The factors associated with body mass index in adults from the study of health in Pomerania (SHIP-0), Germany.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the relation between dental status, BMI and systemic diseases and to evaluate the risk factors for having a higher BMI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Apopulation based cross sectional study of 6248 subjects aged 18-80 years (response of 68.8%, n=4310) was conducted in the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-0). Socio-demographic, medical and oral health information was recorded by 5 dentists at two similarly equipped medical/dental services in the cities of Greifswald and Stralsund. Bivariate statistics, multivariate statistics, linear and logistic regression models were performed to assess the relationship between following covariates: gender, educational level, family status, social activities, income, quality of life (SF-12), smoking, alcohol abuse, diabetes, renal disease, high blood pressure, dental status and high physical activity.

RESULTS

Significant risk factors for subjects having a higher BMI were: high blood pressure (OR=2.28), diabetes (OR=2.10), educational level (low: OR=1.49; medium OR=1.27), male (OR=1.32) and former smoker (OR=1.20). whereas young age, being single and being dentate (natural teeth, replaced teeth or fixed teeth) was shown to be protective for having a "high" BMI.

CONCLUSION

The most important predictors of BMI were shown to be social and medical factors. Dental factors are most significantly influenced by social factors and also exhibit an important impact on BMI.