Cognitive performance and its associations with dental caries: Results from the dental, oral, medical epidemiological (dome) records-based nationwide study

Itzhak Abramovitz, Avraham Zini, Matan Atzmoni, Ron Kedem, Galit Almoznino*, Dorit Zur, Noam E. Protter

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Relatively few studies have analyzed the association between cognitive performance and dental status. This study aimed to analyze the association between cognitive performance and dental caries. Included were data from the dental, oral, medical epidemiological (DOME) study; cross-sectional records-based research, which integrated large socio-demographic, medical, and dental databases of a nationally representative sample of young to middle-aged military personnel (N = 131,927, mean age: 21.8 ± 5.9 years, age range: 18–50). The cognitive function of draftees is routinely measured at age 17 years using a battery of psychometric tests termed general intelligence score (GIS). The mean number of decayed teeth exhibited a gradient trend from the lowest (3.14 ± 3.58) to the highest GIS category (1.45 ± 2.19) (odds ratio (OR) lowest versus highest = 5.36 (5.06–5.68), p < 0.001). A similar trend was noted for the other dental parameters. The associations between GIS and decayed teeth persisted even after adjusting for socio-demographic parameters and health-related habits. The adjustments attenuated the OR but did not eliminate it (OR lowest versus highest = 3.75 (3.38–4.16)). The study demonstrates an association between cognitive performance and caries, independent of the socio-demographic and health-related habits that were analyzed. Better allocation of resources is recommended, focusing on populations with impaired cognitive performance in need of dental care.

Original languageEnglish
Article number178
Pages (from-to)1-15
Number of pages15
JournalBiology
Volume10
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • Caries
  • Cognitive performance
  • Decayed teeth
  • Electronic dental record
  • Electronic medical record
  • Intelligence quotient (IQ)

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