Background: Although it is well known that oral pathogens can enter the systemic circulation and cause disease, it\nis largely unknown if poor oral health increases the risk of sports injuries. The purpose of this study is to investigate\nthe association between poor oral health and reinjuries in male elite soccer players, adjusted for psychosocial\nproblems and player characteristics.\nMethods: 184 Players in premier league soccer clubs and 31 elite, junior soccer players in the Netherlands, Belgium\nand England, were enrolled in a retrospective cross-sectional study. The Sports Injury Risk Indicator, a self assessed\nquestionnaire, was used to obtain information on reinjuries, age and player position, oral health and psychosocial\nproblems. The number of different types of oral health problems was used as an indicator of poor oral health. (SumDental,\nrange 0ââ?¬â??2: 0 = no oral health problems, 1 = one type of oral health problem and 2 = two or more types of oral health\nproblems). Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate whether SumDental was associated with reinjuries,\nafter adjustment for psychosocial problems and player characteristics.\nResults: 37% of the players reported no oral health problems, 43% reported one type of oral health problem and 20%\nreported two or more types of oral health problems. After full adjustment for age, player position and psychosocial\nproblems (i.e. injury anxiety, psychophysical stress, unhealthy eating habits and dissatisfaction with trainer/team), poor oral\nhealth (SumDental) was positively associated with all kind of reinjuries whether analyzed as a continuous variable or as a\ncategorical variable. The fully adjusted odds ratios for SumDental analyzed as a continuous variable were: in relation to\nrepeated exercise-associated muscle cramps: 1.82 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07, 3.12), in relation to muscle or tendon\nreinjury 1.57 (95% CI: 1.01, 2.45) and in relation to multiple types of reinjury 1.88 (95% CI: 1.19, 2.97).\nConclusion: The results from this study justify a thorough examination of the effects of oral health problems on the\ninjury risk of playing elite soccer.
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