Assessment of body mass index and oral health status of school teachers in Dharamshala city, Himachal Pradesh: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The aim of the study was to assess body mass index (BMI) and oral health status of school teachers in Dharamshala city, Himachal Pradesh. Methods: The cross-sectional study design with stratified random sampling was used. The data was collected through interview and recorded on a structured WHO proforma. Results: The mean BMI of the population in the study was 23.33±3.20. The 545 (68.1%) school teachers had normal BMI, followed by 185 (23.1%) were overweight, 43 (5.4%) were underweight and 27 (3.4%) were obese respectively. The mean total decayed teeth and mean total decayed surfaces were higher in underweight school teachers and the difference was statistically significant. The underweight school teachers (1.51), normal BMI school teachers (1.35) and overweight school teachers (1.33) had higher odds for pocket depth of 4-5 mm (Score 1) than obese school teachers. Similarly, underweight school teachers had higher odds ratio of 2.28 (CI 1.43-3.65) for loss of attachment (LOA) for score 1 (4-5 mm) than obese school teachers. Conclusions: The study found a very weak association of BMI with both periodontitis and dental caries. There was an increase of 7.1% in total decayed teeth and LOA of score 1 (4-5 mm) per sextant in index tooth 26/27 in the given age group of 41-50 years for each 1 kg/m2 increase in BMI among the teachers though with a very weak effect size. Further, the study found that under-nutrition as the risk marker for the periodontal pocket and LOA.