Search

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between oral health and asthma/allergic rhinitis/atopic dermatitis in a large representative Korean adolescent population. A total of 136,027 participants (aged 12–18 years old) were selected from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey 2014 to 2015. The subjects’ history of asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis was determined by inquiring whether they had been diagnosed by a medical doctor within the previous 12 months or throughout life. Participants were asked if they had experienced the following 6 symptoms regarding oral health in the past 12 months: “chipped or broken tooth,” “toothache when eating or drinking,” “throbbing and sore tooth,” “sore and bleeding gums,” “pain in the tongue or inside the cheeks,” and “unpleasant breath.” The participants were divided into 3 groups according to the number of oral health-related symptoms as follows: good oral health (symptoms = 0), moderate oral health (symptoms = 1), and poor oral health (symptoms = 2–6). Multiple logistic regression analyses calculated the adjusted odds ratios (aORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for asthma/allergic rhinitis/atopic dermatitis within the past 12 months and throughout life among groups with oral health-related symptom groups. Older age, female sex, fewer days of physical activity, lower parental economic level, lower parental education level, smoking, and frequent alcohol consumption were associated with poor oral health (each P

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, The study aimed to expand previous data regarding an association between asthma and appendectomy in children compared with the population of all ages. The Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service—National Sample Cohort from 2002 through 2013 was used. In all, 22,030 participants who underwent appendectomy were matched for age, sex, income, region of residence, hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia with 88,120 participants who were included as a control group. In both the appendectomy and control groups, previous history of asthma was investigated. Appendectomy for appendicitis was identified based on a surgical code (International Classification of Disease-10 [ICD-10]: K35). Asthma was classified using an ICD-10 code (J45 and J46) and medication history. The crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of asthma for appendectomy were analyzed using conditional logistic regression analysis. Subgroup analyses were conducted according to age and sex. Approximately 15.2% (3358/22,030) of individuals in the appendectomy group and 13.3% (11,749/88,120) of those in the control group had asthma (P