Table 1.

Sociodemographic, behavioral, anthropometric, clinical, and biomarker characteristics of the analytical sample of 356 Dental Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities participants, stratified by chronic periodontitis case status.

	Cases		Controls		P †
	n	%*	n	%*
Entire sample	178	100	178	100
Race					0.8
African American	86	48	83	47
White	92	52	95	53
Sex					1.0
Female	91	51	91	51
Male	87	49	87	49
Education					0.002
Basic	47	26	24	13
Intermediate	72	40	69	39
Advanced	59	33	85	48
Income					0.004
< $12,000	32	19	13	8
$12,000 - $15,999	23	13	9	5
$16,000 - $24,999	25	15	30	18
$25,000 - $34,999	25	15	34	20
$35,000 - $49,999	25	15	25	15
$50,000 - $74,999	23	14	35	21
≥ $75,000	18	11	23	14
Smoking status					<0.0005
Never	69	39	86	48
Former	55	31	77	43
Current	52	30	15	8
Drinking status					0.7
Never	35	20	41	23
Former	39	22	36	20
Current	102	58	101	57
BMI category‡					0.6
Normal (<25.0)	34	20	31	18
Overweight (25-29.9)	68	39	78	45
Obese (≥30.0)	71	41	66	38
Diabetes mellitus					0.9
No	113	64	115	65
Yes	64	36	63	35
Hypertension§					0.9
No	113	64	115	65
Yes	64	36	63	35
Natural teeth◇ (n)					0.02
26-28	42	24	63	35
19-25	73	41	52	29
2-18	63	35	63	35
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Age (years; mean, SD)	62.6	5.5	62.4	5.4	0.7
LTL∥ in visit 4 (length, SD)	1.05	0.17	1.06	0.17	0.6
LTL∥ in visit 2 (length, SD)	1.07	0.18	1.08	0.18	0.6
LTL∥ change (SD)	−0.02	0.14	−0.02	0.14	1.0

^*Column percentages;

^†Corresponding to X² tests of equivalence for categorical variables and t test for age and LTL;

^‡One participant had BMI in the underweight category;

Diabetes mellitus was defined as was defined as fasting plasma glucose ≥ 126 mg/dL, non-fasting plasma glucose ≥ 200 mg/dL, self-reported-history of physician-diagnosed diabetes, or current medication for diabetes;

^§Hypertension was defined as a previous diagnosis of hypertension, taking hypertensive medication, or having a current systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg or a diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg;

^◇Excluding 3rd molars;

^∥Relative leukocyte telomere length was determined according to quantitative polymerase chain reaction