A large-scale, population-based retrospective cohort study with a 13-year follow-up period revealed that people with periodontitis are at a higher risk for gastric Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection compared to people without periodontitis. Using the epidemiological data from Taiwanese Longitudinal National Health Insurance Research Database, Xin Li et al. examined the link between periodontitis and H. pylori infection risk.

Investigators chose 134,474 people (69,606 women, 64,868 men with a minimum age of twenty years), with and without periodontitis, and matched patient cohort groups for index year, age, co-morbidities, and gender.

For assessing the risk of gastric H. pylori infection in periodontitis people, the Cox proportional hazards regression model was utilized. The periodontitis cohort demonstrated a greater risk of developing H. pylori infection compared to the non-periodontitis cohort  (1.35 vs. 0.87 per 1000 person-years), as shown in Figure 1:

The risk of gastric H. pylori infection persisted even after stratifying by age, gender, and presence of comorbidities of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic liver disease and chronic kidney disease. Thus, physicians must carry out regular good oral hygiene practices, together with novel treatments, for people with periodontitis, particularly those at greater risk of gastric H. pylori infection.