TY - JOUR T1 - Epidemiological methods used in the periodontal health research in military personnel: a systematic review JF - BMJ Military Health JO - BMJ Mil Health DO - 10.1136/bmjmilitary-2021-001977 SP - e001977 AU - Millán Bárcena García AU - J M Cobo Plana AU - G Rodríguez Cagiao AU - P I Arcos González Y1 - 2021/12/17 UR - http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/early/2021/12/16/bmjmilitary-2021-001977.abstract N2 - Introduction Periodontal disease is a prevalent pathology in military personnel worldwide. The objective is to analyse the methodological features of periodontal health research performed in military personnel in their home countries.Methods A PRISMA systematic review of literature was carried out in PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science databases on military periodontal health studies. Study design type, language, publication date, year, country, size and sample selection, age, sex, military, diagnostic procedure, examiners, periodontal, gingival and oral hygiene index were extracted.Results Eighty-eight out of 5355 studies found were selected, published between 1921 and 2020, with samples ranging from 52 to 16 869 individuals, generally not randomised, and consisting mainly of men with a mean age of 25 years. Predominant studies were cross-sectional descriptive studies, carried out in the Army, on American military personnel, and in the English language. Most of the studies used the WHO periodontal probe handled by two or more examiners. The Löe and Silness gingival index and the Silness and Löe plaque index were the most used indexes to assess gingival condition and oral hygiene, respectively. Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs was the most widely used periodontal index.Conclusions Research on periodontal health carried out in military populations from the 1920s to the present has been performed from an almost exclusively descriptive approach. Issues such as the characteristics and representativeness of the samples, the epidemiological design and the different gingival-periodontal indexes used may limit the comparability of the study results.Data are available on reasonable request. ER -