Epidemiology of periodontal disease in adolescents in mainland China, 1983–2020: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory disease that includes primarily gingivitis and periodontitis, caused by bacterial infection of the supporting structures of the teeth. For years, much attention has been diverted to periodontal disease among the elderly, not enough attention is paid to adolescents. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the epidemic trend of periodontal disease in adolescents in mainland China. Methods We conducted a comprehensive literature search through PubMed, Embase, CNKI, Chongqing VIP database, Chinese Wan Fang Database, and CBM. A series of subgroup analyses were done to explore the epidemiological characteristics of periodontal disease (gender, location, age, survey year, and geographical distribution) with the help of related software. Results Thirty studies were included in this study. The data extraction and analysis were from three indexes, including bleeding on probing (BOP), pocket depth (PD), and dental calculus (DC). The detection rates of BOP(+), PD ≥4 mm and DC(+) were 48.8% (95% CI: 36.2-61.4%), 1.0% (0.0-2.0%), and 49.8% (41.0-58.6%), respectively. There were significant differences for the prevalence of gingivitis both in gender and area: the prevalence was higher in males than that in females, and risk ratio was 1.04 (95% CI, 1.01-1.06); a lower prevalence in urban areas compared with rural areas, and the risk ratio was 0.90 (95% CI, 0.85-0.96). Conclusions This study shows a high prevalence of gingivitis among adolescents in China. Higher-quality epidemiological surveys with standard examination criteria are needed.