Homepage Round-Up: Poor Oral Health Linked to Cognitive Decline and Stress, Soft Drinks Increase the Risk of Death, and More.

Here are the top stories covered by DocWire News this week in the Homepage section. In this week’s edition of the round-up: a new study shows that poor oral health is linked to cognitive decline and stress, consuming soft drinks increases all-cause mortality risk, and more than half of US middle and school students are exposed to secondhand e-cigarette aerosol.

People with poor oral health are more susceptible to experiencing cognitive decline and perceived stress, according to the findings of a Rutgers University study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. In this study, which focused on older Chinese Americans, researchers assessed 1,297 participants who reported having teeth problems, and 513 participants who reported experiencing gum problems. The results of the study showed that participants who reported having teeth symptoms at baseline experienced a reduction in global cognition by 0.07 units (estimate = −0.07; p = .003) and saw their episodic memory decrease by 0.07 units (estimate = −0.07; p = .026).

Consumption of total, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened soft drinks is linked to all-cause mortality, according to the findings of a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. In this population-based cohort study, researchers assessed 451,743 (mean age, 51, 71% women) participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study. The results showed that during a mean (range) follow-up of 16.4 (11.1 in Greece to 19.2 in France) years, 41, 693 deaths occurred. The researchers observed higher all-cause mortality among participants who consumed two or more soft drink glasses per day.

The findings of a research letter published in JAMA Network Open show that nearly half of US middle school and high students reported being exposed to secondhand aerosol (SHA) from e-cigarettes between 2015 and 2018, with a growing trend found in 2018. Researchers assessed data from a sample of 76,447 participants of the National Youth Tobacco Survey, which took place from 2015 to 2018. The researchers said that “beyond accelerating implementation of clean air laws, surveillance of SHA exposure trends, education about potential SHA harms for parents and youth, and interventions to reduce youth vaping are needed to protect young people from being exposed to all forms of tobacco product emissions, including from e-cigarettes.”