ASSOCIATION BETWEEN RESPIRATORY DISEASES AND ORAL HEALTH: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW STUDY

Background: The purpose of this review was to investigate evidence for a possible etiological association between oral health and pneumonia or other respiratory diseases. Methods: The following data sources were used: Ovid MEDLINE Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature; Evidence Based Medicine of Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews; Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects; EMBASE; Health and Psychosocial Instruments; Health STAR; International Pharmaceutical Abstracts; PubMed; and Google Scholar from the earliest record until July 2018. Results: A total of 728 articles were searched for relevancy, determined by article title, abstract, and full copy, resulting in a yield of 19 studies that met our inclusion criteria.: 1) the potential risk factors for pneumonia were identified as the presence of cariogenic and periodontal pathogens, dental decay, and poor oral hygiene in five studies; 2) there was a weak association identified in four poor to fair studies between periodontal disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 3) 10 studies providing evidence that interventions aiming to improve oral health reduced the progression or occurrence of pneumonia. Conclusions: 1) There is fair evidence (II-2, grade B recommendation) of an association of pneumonia with oral health (odds ratio [OR] = 1.2 to 9.6 depending on oral health indicators). 2) There is poor evidence of a weak association (OR