Social disparities in periodontitis among US adults: the effect of allostatic load

Abstract

These data suggest that stress may be associated with periodontitis in the USA, with Mexican Americans exhibiting the strongest association. Furthermore, this group may lack appropriate coping responses to process chronic stressors that other groups may have historically been conditioned to handle. More research is needed to understand allostatic load in Mexican Americans and its influence on periodontitis.

Origins of heath inequalities: the case for Allostatic Load

“…What is clear, and of greatest value in getting wider support for the concept, is the evidence that supports allostatic load as a better predictor of morbidity and mortality as compared with the individual biomarkers that comprise the score (Borrell & Crawford, 2011;Duru, Harawa, Kermah & Norris, 2012;Gruenewald, Seeman, Ryff, Karlamangla & Singer, 2006;Hwang et al, 2014;Seeman et al, 2004). Recent analyses found that allostatic load shows similar socioeconomic patterning to chronic disease outcomes, including across the life course, with childhood and adolescence/early adulthood representing particularly sensitive periods for poorer socioeconomic circumstances impacting on allostatic load Gustafsson et al, 2014;.…”

Exploring the relationship between childhood adversity and oral health: An anecdotal approach and integrative view

“…The highly acknowledged, prospective Dunedin Study from New Zealand, which followed the impact of psychosocial distress on children over a period of years, has shown a clear correlation between the dental health of the children and that of their parents, reflecting social gradients [88]. In a recent US study, allostatic load, impaired dental health, and low sociocultural status have also been shown to be associated [12].…”

“…These include, among others, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), depression and auto-immune diseases. In addition, each of these, both singly and in their interrelationship, has now been discovered to be associated potentially with complex traumatic experience [12,13,24,[26][27][28]31,36,37,52,54,[78][79][80][81]. There is an increasing amount of solid evidence that experiencing complex trauma affects the body's physiology measurably.…”

“…They admit, however, that evidence of causality remains weak. No explanations are offered to account for why these diseases, traditionally conceptualized both as distinguishable from one another and as belonging to different taxonomies, not only seem to cluster into recognizable patterns but also to be characterized by parallel social gradients [12][13][14]. Reference is made, however, to a ''common denominator,'' namely inflammation.…”

Insulin dysfunction and allostatic load in bipolar disorder

“…The effects of AL in BD are cumulative and can be viewed in several adaptive systems of the body, such as the cardiovascular, endocrine and immunological systems [69]. As these systems are in interplay with each other, alterations in one system will affect others, initiating a cascade of events, with resultant deleterious consequences to the organism.…”