THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIFE-EVENTS AND PERIODONTITIS - A CASE-CONTROL STUDY

This case-control study (n=100 dental patients, matched for age and se x) investigated the role of life-events in periodontitis. Data collect ed included life events, tobacco use, oral health behaviours and socio -demographics. The results of conditional simple logistic regression a nalysis showed that periodontitis was associated with the negative imp act of life-events (p<0.01), the number of negative life-events (p<0.0 5), high levels of dental plaque (p<0.01), tobacco smoking (p<0.01) an d being unemployed (p<0.05). These associations remained statistically significant after adjusting for oral health behaviour and socio-demog raphic variables, but not tobacco smoking (p>0.05). Marital status bec ame statistically significant after adjusting for the other variables (p<0.05). A model is suggested to explain the pathways through which l ife events may affect periodontal health, It was concluded that psycho social factors and oral health risk behaviours cluster together as imp ortant determinants of periodontitis.