Association between the number of teeth and hypertension in a study based on 13,561 participants.

BACKGROUND

No studies have reported the association between the number of teeth and hypertension in the Korean national data. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the number of teeth is associated with blood pressure and hypertension in a representative sample of the Korean population.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 13,561 participants aged ≥19 years using the 2012 to 2014 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. The number of teeth was divided into four groups: 0, 1 to 19, 20 to -27, and 28. The definition of hypertension was systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mm Hg or being medicated for hypertension. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed after controlling for age, sex, income, education, smoking, drinking, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and hypercholesterolemia. Age- and sex-stratified analyses were performed.

RESULTS

The fully adjusted odds ratios (AOR) of the number of teeth group for hypertension were as follows: AOR: 1.25, 95% CI: 1.11 to 1.43 for 20 to 27 teeth; AOR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.22 to 1.76; 1 to 19 teeth; and AOR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.22 to 2.18 for edentulism. The strength of the association was highest in women aged ≥60 years across all age and sex groups (OR = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.15 to 2.86).

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that a decrease in the number of teeth may be independently associated with hypertension in the Korean population.