Relationship between serum uric acid levels and periodontitis—A cross-sectional study

Objectives Whether there is an association between serum uric acid level (sUA) and periodontitis remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between moderate/severe periodontitis and sUA in US adults. Materials and methods A total of 3398 participants were included in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2009 to 2014. The independent variable was sUA and the dependent variable was periodontitis. SUA for continuous variables, periodontitis as classification variables. Covariate including social demographic variables, life style, systemic diseases, etc. Multiple linear regression models were used to investigate the distribution of differences in covariates between different independent groups. To investigate the association between serum uric acid levels and moderate/severe periodontitis, three models were used (Model 1: unadjusted model; Model 2: adjusted for age, sex, and race/ethnicity; Model 3: adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, household income/poverty ratio, smoking behavior, alcohol consumption, dental floss frequency, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, hyperlipidemia, and sleep disorders). Results Among the 3398 patients, 42.5% had moderate/severe periodontitis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that sUA was significantly associated with moderate/severe periodontitis (OR = 1.10, 95%CI: (1.03, 1.16), P = 0.0020) after adjusting for potential confounding factors. In addition, it may vary by race/ethnicity and gender. The association between sUA levels and the prevalence ofperiodontitis was U-shaped in women and non-Hispanic blacks. Conclusion sUA level is associated with moderate to severe periodontitis. However, the association between sUA levels and the occurrence of periodontitis in women and non-Hispanic blacks followed a U-shaped curve. Clinical relevance sUA may directly or indirectly contribute to the global burden of periodontal disease, but there is little evidence that sUA is directly related to periodontitis.This study further supports that high uric acid levels are closely related to periodontitis and may contribute to the control of periodontitis. It also provides new insights into whether it can be used as an indicator to assess the risk or progression of periodontitis. More studies are needed to confirm the relationship between sUA and periodontitis.