The spatial and temporal trends of severe periodontitis burden in Asia, 1990-2019: A population-based epidemiological study

Abstract

Background: To investigate the long-term and spatial patterns of incidence, prevalence, and disability-adjusted life year (DALY) rates of severe periodontitis in Asia from 1990 to 2019, and to estimate the associations between disease burden and socioeconomic development using the Socio-Demographic Index (SDI).

Methods: Data were obtained from the global burden of disease study 2019. The average annual percent change (AAPC) was calculated to reflect temporal trends, spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted to estimate the spatial characteristics, and spatial panel models were used to investigate the association between SDI and severe periodontitis burden.

Results: For Asia as a whole, the crude rates increased by 1.10% per year for incidence, 1.42% per year for prevalence, and 1.41% per year for DALY from 1990 to 2019. The age-standardized incidence, prevalence and DALY rates increased by 0.18%, 0.22%, and 0.23% per year, respectively. Spatially, the hot spots of age-standardized incidence, prevalence and DALY rates were located in Southern Asia, besides, these rates all showed increasing trends in most countries, and the increases were clustered in Southeastern Asia. Further, SDI showed a negative association with incidence (coef = -14.44; 95% CI: -24.63, -4.25) and prevalence (coef = -40.09; -51.81, -28.36), and a positive association with DALY rates (coef = 0.31; 0.23; 0.38).

Conclusions: Severe periodontitis poses a serious public health challenge in Asian countries with increasing temporal trends and substantial spatial inequalities. Effective geographically targeted public health interventions and strategies are needed to address the growing burden associated with severe periodontitis.

Keywords: epidemiology; periodontitis; prevention; public health.