Over a 10-year period, the incidence of tooth loss, the rates of tooth loss, and the predictors of tooth loss were found to vary by population and by sex. These results illustrate the limits of generalizing tooth loss findings across different study cohorts and indicate that there may exist important differences in risk factors for tooth loss among US adult populations.

BackgroundThe morbidity and mortality attributed to injecting drug use is a substantial contributor to any study on causes of premature death. Understanding the extent of this may be limited by difficulties in observing and recording outcomes over several decades. Historic studies have recorded information in a period when blood borne virus and drug deaths were a smaller proportion or, in the cases of Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS, absent from National mortality figures.Design and settingA cohort of people who had, ever, injected drugs was established over a prolonged period of observation in one, community based, medical practice in Edinburgh (UK). Outcomes were measured in the clinical situation and by accessing death certificates from national, UK, registers.FindingsCauses of death in a cohort of 794 people who inject drugs (PWIDs) varied over time, some conditions relating to single pathological diagnoses and others were more complicated, multimorbid, and cumulative over time. HIV/AIDS was a striking cause of death until 1995 when antiviral chemotherapy was introduced. Drug related deaths (mainly overdose) remained a significant cause of death and death due to alcohol, respiratory, cardiovascular and cancer (mainly lung) increased over time. A wide range of other causes including suicide and violence and trauma were recorded.ConclusionsMortality resulting from present or historic drug use may be underestimated in current recoding systems, which largely record deaths from overdose or a single pathological event in an acute situation. The range of conditions causing or contributing to premature death is enormous reflecting multiple risks associated with drug use.