Investigating the causal nature of associations between dental disease, cardio-metabolic traits and cardiovascular outcomes: providing evidence for a potential role of dentistry in improving population cardiovascular health.
Description: Poor dental health is common. Observationally, dental caries and periodontal disease are associated with cardio-metabolic traits and can predict cardiovascular outcomes. In addition to inflammatory mediators (which may not cause cardiovascular disease) there are other plausible mechanisms to explain these associations, including bacterial colonization of extra-oral sites and systemic spread of bacterial toxins from the oral cavity. Observational studies are prone to reverse causality and confounding, meaning that existing epidemiological studies do not support or refute a causal association. The research question is " is there evidence for a causal relationship (in any direction) between dental health, cardio-metabolic intermediaries and cardiovascular outcomes? " Dental disease is assessed regularly, but this information is not used to assess risk of cardio-metabolic disease. Answering this question may in turn highlight new roles for primary care dentistry in improving cardio-metabolic health. Aim 1: To assess for association between dental disease, cardiovascular outcomes and cardio-metabolic intermediaries by performing a systematic review and new observational analysis. Aim 2: To identify and describe genetic risk factors for dental disease by undertaking a Genome Wide Association Study and bioinformatic analysis. Aim 3: To determine the causal direction and potential mechanism for associations identified in aim 1.
Funder: Wellcome Trust
Amount: £172,700
Funding type: fellowship
Funder scheme: Research Training Fellowship
Start date: 2016-05-16
End date: 2019-05-15
Investigator: Mr Simon Haworth
Institution: University of Bristol
Funded outputs count: 24
Funder award ID: 201268/Z/16/Z
OpenAlex ID: G8934095696