Black people with household incomes exceeding $20,000 a year were more
likely than both lower-income blacks and high-income whites to have periodontitis,
according to Luisa N. Borrell, D.D.S., Ph.D., of the Mailman School of
Public Health and School of Dental and Oral Surgery, Columbia University
and colleagues of the University of Michigan. The findings are published
in the American Journal of Public Health.
Previous studies suggested that periodontitis was more prevalent among
people with lower incomes and low levels of education. Borrell and colleagues
say the equation is more complicated.
“Our study, although somewhat consistent with previous studies,
shows that the relationship between the prevalence of periodontitis and
income and education is different across racial/ethnic groups,” Borrell
says.
Periodontitis is a dental disease that follows advanced gum inflammation,
where the ligaments and bone holding teeth in their sockets start to deteriorate.
Using data from 3,407 dental exams performed as part of a nationwide health
survey, the researchers examined periodontitis among white, black and Mexican-American
survey participants ages 50 and older.
Borrell and colleagues classified the participants by income depending
on whether their annual household income fell above or below $20,000. The
researchers also divided the people into higher and lower education groups
based on whether they had attended more or less than 12 years of school.
Periodontitis levels were highest among men, people without health insurance
and those who had not visited a dentist in the past six months, people
with a history of diabetes and smokers, the researchers found.
Income and education seemed to reduce the odds of periodontitis among
white people, but the same was not true for blacks.
“In fact, blacks in the higher education group exhibited prevalences
of periodontitis that were 2.3 and 4.9 times higher than their white or
Mexican-American counterparts, respectively,” Borrell and colleagues
say.
“Mexican Americans exhibited the lowest prevalence of periodontitis
regardless of their income or education,” they add.
The researchers suggest a number of factors, from stress
to the “historical
implications of unequal opportunities for blacks in our society,” might
help explain the high levels of dental disease among older black people.
The study was supported by The Columbia Center for the Active Life on
Minority Elders and The National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial
Research.
