Objectives Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and periodontal disease (PD) are metabolic and chronic inflammatory conditions, respectively, prevalent and often co‐occurring during pregnancy. This study aims to determine the overall prevalence of PD during pregnancy and investigate the potential association between PD and GDM. Materials and Methods Observational studies reporting the prevalence of PD during pregnancy or investigating the relationship between PD and GDM were systematically searched in English and Chinese databases. Two independent researchers conducted literature screening and assessed the quality of the included studies. A meta‐analysis was performed using R software to combine the prevalence of PD, presented as an estimate and the 95% confidence interval (CI), while the association between PD and GDM was pooled using the odds ratio (OR) and the 95% CI. Results A total of 21 studies were included, comprising case–control, cohort, and cross‐sectional designs. The quality assessment revealed that all studies achieved an average score of 7 points. The meta‐analysis showed that the prevalence of PD during pregnancy was 43% in case–control studies, 40% in cross‐sectional studies, and 53% in cohort studies. The subgroup analysis indicated that PD was associated with an increased risk of GDM in case–control (OR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.16–2.22) and cohort studies (OR = 2.22, 95% CI: 1.24–3.96). Conclusions The prevalence of PD during pregnancy was found to be notably high and was identified as a risk factor for GDM. However, due to the inconsistency among studies, further investigations are needed to elucidate the association between PD and GDM.
Yang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.