Relationship between obesity and physical fitness and periodontitis

Background: Obesity and exercise are important elements associated with lifestyle-related diseases, and studies suggested that these factors may also be related to periodontitis. This study investigates the relationship between obesity and physical fitness and periodontitis. Methods: One thousand, one hundred and sixty Japanese subjects, aged 20 to 77 years, who participated in health examinations at Fukuoka Health Promotion Center were analyzed. Periodontal conditions were evaluated using the Community Periodontal Index (CPI), and subjects with >3 sextants of CPI code 3 or 4 were defined as having severe peri-odontitis. We used the body mass index (BMI) and percentage of body fat as indicators of obesity and estimated the maximal oxygen consumption (VO _2max) during exercise as an indicator of physical fitness. We divided these variables into quintiles. We examined the single effect and interactions of the obesity index and VO _2max on severe periodontitis. Results: The lowest quintile in BMI and the highest quintile inVO _2max were inversely associated with severe periodontitis, singly, in multivariate logistic regression analyses. Subjects with the combined lowest quintile in BMI and the highest quintile in VO _2max had a significantly lower risk of severe periodontitis compared to subjects with other combined quintiles in BMI and in VO _2max (odds ratio: 0.17;95% confidence interval: 0.05 to 0.55). Conclusion: This study suggests that obesity and physical fitness may have some interactive effect on periodontal health status.