� Periodontal disease may be an independent predictor of incident Type 2 diabetes, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. While diabetes has long been believed to be a risk factor for periodontic infections, this is the first discipline exploring whether the reverse might too be true, that is, if periodontic infections canful contribute to the development of diabetes. The full study findings are published in the July 2008 issue of Diabetes Care.
The Mailman School of Public Health researchers studied over 9,000 participants without diabetes from a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population, 817 of whom went on to acquire diabetes. They then compared the risk of development diabetes over the side by side 20 years between people with variable degrees of periodontal disease and launch that individuals with elevated levels of periodontal disease were intimately twice as likely to become diabetic in that 20 year timeframe. These findings remained after extensive multivariable adjustment for potential confounders including, but non limited to, age, smoke, obesity, high blood pressure, and dietary patterns.
"These data add a new twist to the association and suggest that periodontic disease may be there before diabetes," said Ryan T. Demmer, PhD, MPH, associate research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health and lead author. "We ground that over two decades of follow-up, individuals world Health Organization had periodontic disease were more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes later in life when compared to individuals without periodontic disease."
Also of stake, the researchers found that those study participants world Health Organization had lost all of their teeth were at intermediate risk for incident diabetes. "This could be suggestive that the people who lost all of their teeth had a history of infection at some point, but subsequently lost their teeth and removed the source of infection," illustrious Dr. Demmer. "This is particularly interesting as it supports previous research originating from The Oral Infections and Vascular Disease Epidemiology Study (INVEST) which has shown that individuals wanting teeth are at average risk for cardiovascular disease" said Mo�se Desvarieux, MD, PhD, director of INVEST, associate prof and Inserm Chair of Excellence in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School and fourth-year author of the paper.
The contributive role of periodontal disease in the development of Type 2 diabetes is potentially of public wellness importance because of the prevalence of treatable periodontal diseases in the population and the pervasiveness of diabetes-associated morbidness and mortality. However, observes Dr. Demmer, more studies are requisite both to determine whether gum disease directly contributes to case 2 diabetes and, from there, that treating the dental problem can keep diabetes. In addition to Dr. Desvarieux, David R. Jacobs Jr., PhD, professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota, besides contributed to the enquiry.
About the Mailman School of Public Health The only licenced school of public wellness in New York City, and among the number one in the nation, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health provides instruction and research opportunities to more than 1000 calibrate students in pursuit of masters and doctoral degrees. Its students and more than three hundred multi-disciplinary module engage in research and service in the city, nation, and around the world, concentrating on biometrics, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, health insurance and management, population and family wellness, and sociomedical sciences.
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
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