The relationship between pneumonia and dental visits in patients with cerebral palsy: A nationwide registry-based cohort study in Taiwan.

Background/purpose: In general, improving oral health can reduce the risk of pneumonia. The purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to investigate the risk of pneumonia between cerebral palsy (CP) cohort and non-CP cohort as well as the association of pneumonia with the number of dental visits in CP patients in Taiwan.

Materials And Methods: We identified 10,544 patients who were diagnosed with CP between 2010 and 2019 from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. 63,264 individuals who had never been diagnosed with CP were captured and matched in a 6:1 ratio. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was adopted to assess the hazard ratio (HR) of pneumonia between CP cohort and non-CP cohort.

Results: Our findings demonstrated that CP cohort had 2.619-fold risk for pneumonia as compared with non-CP cohort after adjustment (95 % CI = 2.574-2.813,  < 0.0001). Cox regression analysis indicated that the CP group had significantly higher incidence risk of pneumonia (log rank  < 0.0001). Higher risks of pneumonia in CP patients were associated with younger age, and lower urbanization level. Some comorbidities as well as history of pneumonia had the higher aHR for pneumonia within 180 days prior to index date. In addition, there was a positive association with the more than two dental visits for the decrease 0.887-fold incidence of pneumonia in CP-cohort as compared with no dental visit (95 % CI: 0.799-0.984).

Conclusion: Taken together, CP patients had a higher risk of pneumonia. Dental visits are beneficial for preventing the risk of pneumonia in CP patients. The patients with CP should receive regular dental checkup.