Some characteristics of 50/55-year-old individuals with various experience of destructive periodontal disease:: a cross-sectional study

Objective: To analyze the association between subject characteristics and degree of destructive periodontal disease in a randomly selected sample of 50/55-year-old individuals. Methods: A randomized and geographically stratified (urban/rural districts) subject sample composed of dentate 50-year-old (n = 190) and 55-year-old individuals (n = 359) from the county of Varmland, Sweden were examined. Data were collected through full mouth clinical and radiographic examinations and by the use of questionnaires. Based on the cumulative distribution of the individuals with respect to mean probing attachment loss (PAL), subgroups of subjects with the lowest (L20%) and highest (H20%) experience of PAL were identified. Similar classifications were made for never-smokers and current smokers. Correlation analyses and forward stepwise logistic regression models were performed. Results: The subgroup with the most extensive PAL loss (H20%) included a significantly higher proportion of (i) males (60 vs 33%), (ii) subjects with low educational level (65 vs 41%), (iii) smokers (49 vs 15%), and had (iv) less favorable lifestyle characteristics than the subgroup with minimal experience of PAL loss (L20%). The same pattern of differences was observed when the analysis was restricted to never-smokers, with the addition of a significantly lower proportion of subjects living in urban areas (40 vs 69%) in the H20% compared to the L20% subgroup. The stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that number of teeth and smoking habits were significant factors in the identification of individuals in the L20% subgroup. For the H20% subgroup, number of teeth, gender, number of cigarettes/day and lifestyle index were significant explanatory variables. Conclusion: Number of remaining teeth and smoking habits were identified as the main discriminating factors for classification of subjects with regard to degree of destructive periodontal disease.