• Item type: Scientific article
• Language: English
• Author: Cinar AB , Oktay I , Schou L
• Publication Date: , 2015
• http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/25884044

To assess the correlation between toothbrushing (TB) and the common biological (HDL) and quality-of-life-related risk factors for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and communicable diseases among patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2).The present study is part of a prospective intervention study among DM2 patients (n = 200), randomly selected from the outpatient clinics, Istanbul, Turkey. The assessed variables were: TB, self-reported gingival bleeding (SRGB), HDL, BMI, body-fat proportion, modified quality of life scale (WHOQOL-BrefPhPs). Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, Spearman rank correlation, the chi-square test and factor analysis were applied.A minority of the patients brushed their teeth twice a day or more (27%) and reported no gingival bleeding (37%). Favourable HDL and high WHOQOL-BrefPhPs were 77% and 57%, respectively. A majority of patients had unhealthy BMI (83%) and body-fat proportions (63%). SRGB was negatively correlated with WHOQOL-BrefPhPs (rs = -0.24, p < 0.05) and TB (rs = -0.25, p < 0.01). The patients who reported less than daily TB were more likely to have unfavourable HDL and low WHOQOL-BrefPhPs (32% vs 54%) than those brushing their teeth daily (17% vs 35%, p < 0.05). Principal component analysis revealed two clusters: 'healthy weight' (WHOQOL-BrefPhPs, TB, BMI) and 'oral health' (SRGB, HDL).The present results demonstrate a correlation between TB and biological and quality-of-life-related risk markers of NCDs and communicable diseases. There seems to be a need to increase the awareness of the significance TB's potential intermediatory role between NCDs and communicable diseases.