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Hispanics and Latinos are an ethnically heterogeneous population with distinct oral health risk profiles. Few study investigators have examined potential variation in the burden of periodontitis according to Hispanic or Latino background.The authors used a multicenter longitudinal population-based cohort study to examine the periodontal health status at screening (2008-2011) of 14,006 Hispanic and Latino adults, aged 18 to 74 years, from four U.S. communities who self-identified as Cuban, Dominican, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central American or South American. The authors present weighted, age-standardized prevalence estimates and corrected standard errors of probing depth (PD), attachment loss (AL) and periodontitis classified according to the case definition established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Periodontology (CDC-AAP). The authors used a Wald χ(2) test to compare prevalence estimates across Hispanic or Latino background, age and sex.Fifty-one percent of all participants had exhibited total periodontitis (mild, moderate or severe) per the CDC-AAP classification. Cubans and Central Americans exhibited the highest prevalence of moderate periodontitis (39.9 percent and 37.2 percent, respectively). Across all ages, Mexicans had the highest prevalence of PD across severity thresholds. Among those aged 18 through 44 years, Dominicans consistently had the lowest prevalence of AL at all severity thresholds.Measures of periodontitis varied significantly by age, sex and Hispanic or Latino background among the four sampled Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos communities. Further analyses are needed to account for lifestyle, behavioral, demographic and social factors, including those related to acculturation.Aggregating Hispanics and Latinos or using estimates from Mexicans may lead to substantial underestimation or overestimation of the burden of disease, thus leading to errors in the estimation of needed clinical and public health resources. This information will be useful in informing decisions from public health planning to patient-centered risk assessment.

Previous research suggests greater risk of coronary heart disease with lower levels of the adrenal steroid dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS). No studies have examined the association between DHEAS and risk of ischemic stroke. DHEAS may influence ischemic stroke risk through atherosclerotic-related mechanisms (endothelial function and smooth muscle cell proliferation) or insulin resistance.Between 1989 and 1990, 32 826 women without prior stroke in the Nurses' Health Study, an observational cohort, provided blood samples and were followed up for cardiovascular events. Among this sample, using a nested case-control design, 461 ischemic strokes were confirmed by medical records by 2006. Cases were matched to controls free of stroke at the time of the index case and by age, race, menopausal status, postmenopausal hormone use, smoking status, and date of sample collection. Multivariable conditional logistic regression was used.Median DHEAS levels did not differ between cases (median=58.7) and controls (median=66.0; P=0.10). Conditional on matching factors, the lowest DHEAS quartile exhibited a relative risk of 1.30 for ischemic stroke (95% confidence interval, 0.88-1.94), compared with the highest quartile and marginally unchanged when adjusted for confounders (relative risk=1.33; 95% confidence interval, 0.87-2.02). When modeled as a binary variable dichotomized at the lowest quartile, women with low DHEAS (≤the lowest quartile) had a significantly increased multivariable adjusted risk of ischemic stroke compared with those with higher levels (relative risk=1.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.92).Lower DHEAS levels were associated with a greater risk of ischemic stroke, even after adjustment for potential confounders. These novel observations warrant confirmation in other populations.