Associations between oral health and depression and anxiety: A cross‐sectional and prospective cohort study from the UK Biobank

Abstract Aim To investigate the associations between oral health and depression, anxiety and their comorbidity in the UK Biobank cohort. Materials and Methods Oral health problems were self‐reported at baseline. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were assessed using the Mental Health Questionnaire (PHQ‐4) in a cross‐sectional study. In the cohort study, diagnoses of depression and anxiety disorders were based on hospital records. Logistic regression and Cox regression models were used to analyse the association between oral health and depression/anxiety. Results A total of 305,188 participants were included in the cross‐sectional study, and multivariate analysis showed that periodontal disease was associated with depression and/or anxiety (odds ratio [OR]: 1.79, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.73–1.86). In the prospective cohort study involving 264,706 participants, periodontal disease was significantly associated with an increased risk of depression and/or anxiety (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.10–1.19), depression (HR: 1.19, 95% CI: 1.13–1.25) and anxiety (HR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.07–1.19). Periodontal disease was also significantly associated with comorbid depression and anxiety (HR: 1.27, 95% CI: 1.16–1.38). Multiple mediation analysis using baseline inflammatory factors showed that white blood cell count and C‐reactive protein explained 3.07% and 3.15% of the association between periodontal disease and depression and anxiety, respectively. However, the results of longitudinal multiple mediation analysis of inflammatory factors at first follow‐up ( N = 10,673) were not significant. Conclusions Periodontal disease was found to be consistently associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety and their comorbidity.