Gender differences in oral manifestations among HIV-infected Brazilian adults

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare gender differences in the prevalence of oral lesions in HIV-infected Brazilian adults. A retrospective study was conducted of medical records from HIV/AIDS patients from 1993 to 2004. Oral lesions were only included in this study if definitively diagnosed through microscopic analysis, therapeutic test or according to EC-Clearing house criteria. A total of 750 men and 237 women were included in the study. Statistically significant differences were observed only for oral hairy leukoplakia, Kaposi sarcoma and lymphadenopathy (P < 0.01). However, a model of logistic regression showed that only oral hairy leukoplakia presented a significant association with gender and males had a significantly likelihood (four times higher than females) of presenting with this oral manifestation [OR 4.3 (95% CI: 1.39-13.36)]. These data shows that oral manifestations are less prevalent in females than in males, particularly oral hairy leukoplakia.