Intensive Periodontal Treatment Reduces Risks of Hospitalization for Cardiovascular Disease and All-Cause Mortality in the Hemodialysis Population

Periodontal disease (POD) is associated with the risk of atherosclerotic vascular disease in patients on hemodialysis (HD). The association between POD treatment and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is still unknown. A total of 3613 patients who received HD and intensive POD treatment between 1 January 1998, and 31 December 2011 were identified from the National Health Insurance Research Database as the treatment cohort. The comparison cohort comprised patients without POD treatment who were matched to the patients in the treatment cohort at a 1:1 ratio by the propensity score. All CVDs defined by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9)) codes were ascertained by hospital records for nonfatal events. The first CVD was used to define incidence. Relative risks were estimated by hazard ratios from the Cox proportional hazard model with adjustment for demographic variables and cardiovascular risk factors. Compared with the comparison cohort, the adjusted hazard ratio of hospitalization for CVDs was 0.78 (95% confidence interval = 0.73–0.84, p < 0.001) in the treatment cohort The treatment cohort exhibited significantly lower cumulative incidences of CVDs (log-rank test p < 0.001) and mortality (log-rank test p < 0.001). Intensive POD treatment was associated with reduced risks of CVDs and overall mortality in patients on HD.