Association between clinical measures of gingival inflammation and obesity in adults: systematic review and meta-analyses.

Objective: This study aimed to systematically review the literature about the association between clinical measures of gingival inflammation and obesity in adults.

Material And Methods: Searches for studies were performed in five databases (Medline-PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase) to compile studies of any design that evaluated the association between clinical measures of gingival inflammation and obesity in adults. Selection of studies, data extraction and risk of bias analysis were performed independently by two reviewers, and a third researcher was involved to resolve disagreements. Meta-analyses were performed for measures of gingival inflammation as compared to body mass index (BMI). Independent analyses were performed for studies involving periodontitis, gingivitis, and population-based/studies that did not provide a periodontal diagnosis. Standard mean deviation (SMD) and its 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were estimated.

Results: Ninety studies were included (cross-sectional/clinical trials [n=82], case-control [n=3], cohorts [n=5]). Most of the studies demonstrated no significant difference in the measures of gingival inflammation regardless of the comparison performed. However, meta-analysis showed that among individuals with periodontitis, significantly higher levels of gingival inflammation are observed in those with obesity (n of individuals=240) when compared to those who were not obese (n of individuals=574) (SMD:0.26; 95%CI:0.07-0.44). When considering population-based/those studies that did not provide periodontal diagnosis, significantly higher measures of gingival inflammation were observed in the groups with higher BMI.

Conclusions: Within the limitations of the present study, it was concluded that higher measures of gingival inflammation may be expected for those with higher BMI.

Clinical Relevance: Clinicians must be aware that higher measures of gingival inflammation may be expected for individuals with higher BMI. However, there is a necessity for further longitudinal studies regarding the association between obesity and gingival inflammation.