Relationship between asthma and dental caries in Korean adults: Data from the Sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between asthma and dental caries by using data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), from 2013 to 2015. Methods: The study included 11,731 subjects who were ≥19 years of age and analyzed their demographic-, socioeconomic-, health-, and oral health carerelated data. The chi-squared test and logistic regression analysis were conducted using complex sample analyses to examine the relationship between asthma and dental caries. Results: Compared with the control group, the risk for dental caries in the asthma group was 1.207 times higher, regardless of various confounding factors (p<0.001). In the asthma group, the mean DMFT score was significantly higher than that in the control group (p<0.001). After adjusting for confounding factors, the mean number of DMFT in subjects with asthma was 7.67, which was higher than that in subjects without asthma (7.28) (p<0.001). Conclusions: The study results show that asthma may be a risk factor for dental caries. Therefore, in order to prevent dental caries in asthma patients, oral hygiene education is important.