The human oral microbiome and mortality in three prospective cohort studies

Authors

• AD Armenta Vega
• Y Arima
• S Ikemoto

Abstract

Poor oral health (e.g., periodontal disease) has been associated with mortality and various chronic diseases, suggesting the oral microbiome impacts systemic. We analyzed associations between the oral microbiome and overall mortality risk using data from three large, prospective cohorts in the United States.

Our analysis included a reference sub-cohort (N=3,499) that had been randomly selected by strata of age, sex, and smoking status from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, Agricultural Health Study, and the Prostate, Lung, Colorectum, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial cohorts. Over a median follow-up of 16 years, a total of 1,236 deaths occurred. DNA was extracted from oral wash samples, the 16S rRNA gene V4 region was amplified and sequenced, and bioinformatic processing was performed using QIIME 2. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Higher alpha diversity was associated with lower mortality risk. For example, every standard deviation increase in observed amplicon sequence variants was associated with lower mortality risk with a HR of 0.89 (95% CI: 0.83-0.96). Multiple genera of the Clostridiales order were inversely associated with mortality risk. For example, the presence of the Eubacterium nodatum group was associated with 0.70 times the risk of mortality (95% CI: 0.61-0.82) compared with those without this bacterium. Higher relative abundances of a few genera (e.g., Lactobacillus and Scardovia) were associated with an increased risk of mortality.

Results from this large prospective investigation suggest that multiple characteristics of the oral microbiome are associated with mortality risk.

Scientific Focus Area: ACI/IRS

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