Epidemic trend of periodontal disease in elderly Chinese population, 1987–2015: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Periodontal disease is a common oral health problem in the elderly population. The prevalence varied substantially due to absence of a universal diagnostic criteria. We conducted a systematic review to identify the epidemiological characteristics of periodontal diseases among Chinese elderly people. A total of 19 articles were included. The pooled detection rates for three indicators, including bleeding on probing (BOP), pocket depth (PD) and clinical attachment loss (CAL), were 53.9% (95% CI: 43.8–63.9%), 57.0% (50.8–63.2%), and 70.1% (65.4–74.8%), respectively. No significant differences in these indicators between urban and rural population. When stratified by gender, BOP (+) detection rates did not show any differences, but the detection rates of PD ≥ 4 mm and CAL ≥ 4 mm were significantly higher in males than in females (59.3% [53.4–65.2%] versus 50.8% [43.5–58.0%], RR(PD) = 1.13 [1.01–1.26]; 73.8% [70.0–77.7%] versus 65.2% [60.2–70.2%], RR(CAL) = 1.21 [1.11–1.32]). No statistically significant differences were observed between CAL ≥ 4 mm and PD ≥ 4 mm (RR = 1.12, [0.83–1.50]). A geographical map based on available data during 1987–2015 showed wide variations of periodontal disease across the mainland China. Some factors such as heterogeneity of case definitions, no specific diagnosis of periodontitis, and variable quality of the included studies could affect the final results. Hence, further high-quality epidemiological studies with standardized diagnostic criteria are needed.