. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 May 19.

Published in final edited form as: Med Hypotheses. 2009 Dec;73(6):963–975. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2009.06.017

Table 4.

Commonality of sociodemographic and behavioral risk factors for bacterial vaginosis and periodontitis

Bacterial Vaginosis	Periodontitis
Stress (196–198)	Stress (199, 200)
Smoking (201–203)	Smoking (204–209)
Poor nutrition (210, 211)	Poor nutrition (212)
Ethnicity : African Americans at higher risk of BV(213, 214)	Ethnicity; African Americans have a higher risk of periodontitis (215–217)
Microbiology of infection not fully characterized; decreased levels of H₂O₂ producing Lactobacilli (218–220)	Microbiology of infection not fully characterized; decreased levels of H₂O₂ producing Lactobacilli (176, 221, 222)
Invokes local proinflammatory immune response (223–225)	Invokes local and perhaps systemic immune response (226–228)