Table 3.

Final reduced models depicting the associations between toothbrushing/flossing frequency and modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors (with significant covariates) among disease-free adults in the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (N=712).

	Cardiovascular disease risk factors
Predictors	Total cholesterol (mg/dL)	HDL cholesterol (mg/dL)	Systolic blood pressure (mm/Hg)
Intercept	195.453 ±7.633, p<0.001	48.112 ±2.153, p<0.001	136.933 ±3.002, p<0.001
Toothbrushing
<1 time per day	14.821 ±7.397, p=0.049	−5.691 ±1.812, p=0.003	---
1 time per day	−0.490 ±5.843, p=0.933	−1.694 ±1.531, p=0.273	---
≥2 times per day	ref.	ref.	---
Flossing
Daily	---	---	−4.014 ±2.337, p=0.091
Most days	---	---	−3.711 ±1.662, p=0.029
Some days	---	---	ref.
Rarely	---	---	0.695 ±2.212, p=0.755
Never	---	---	0.387 ±3.321, p=0.908
Age (years)
30−38	−19.005 ±8.212, p=0.024	−9.290 ±3.002, p=0.003	−10.691 ±3.750, p=0.006
39−47	−2.491 ±9.026, p= 0.784	−4.995 ±3.127, p= 0.115	−8.519 ±3.507, p=0.018
48−56	4.013 ±8.243, p=0.628	−4.295 ±2.708, p=0.118	0.356 ±3.822, p=0.926
57−65	5.612 ±8.806, p=0.526	−0.303 ±2.858, p=0.916	0.422 ±3.285, p=0.898
66−74	ref.	ref.	ref.
Sex
Female	---	11.053 ±1.075, p<0.001	−7.057 ±1.539, p<0.001
Male	---	ref.	ref.
Dental check in last year
Yes	---	---	−4.042 ±1.964, p=0.044
No	---	---	ref.
Smoking
Current	14.066 ±6.823, p=0.044	---	---
Former	−2.343 ±4.252, p= 0.584	---	---
Never	ref.	---	---

Values are reported as point estimate ±standard error, p-value. Positive values indicate a greater level of the outcome relative to the reference category (or 1-unit increase for continuous predictor variables) and negative values indicate a lower level of the outcome relative to the reference category.

Bolded values denote point estimate was p < 0.05.