PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Audrey Renson
AU  - Heidi E. Jones
AU  - Francesco Beghini
AU  - Nicola Segata
AU  - Christine P. Zolnik
AU  - Mykhaylo Usyk
AU  - Thomas U. Moody
AU  - Lorna Thorpe
AU  - Robert Burk
AU  - Levi Waldron
AU  - Jennifer B. Dowd
TI  - Sociodemographic variation in the oral microbiome
AID  - 10.1101/189225
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 189225
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/25/189225.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/25/189225.full
AB  - Background Variations in the human oral microbiome are potentially implicated in health inequalities, but existing studies of the oral microbiome have minimal sociodemographic diversity. This study describes sociodemographic variation of the oral microbiome in a diverse sample of New York City residents.Methods Data come from 296 participants, a subsample of the 2013-14 population-based New York City Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NYC-HANES). Mouthwash samples were processed using using 16S v4 rRNA amplicon sequencing. We examined differential abundance of 216 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), in addition to alpha and beta diversity amongst sociodemographic variables including age, gender, income, education, nativity, and race/ethnicity.Results A total of 75 OTUs were differentially abundant by any sociodemographic variable (false discovery rate < 0.01), including 27 by race/ethnicity, 23 by family income, 20 by education, and five by gender. Genera differing for more than one sociodemographic characteristic included Lactobacillus, Prevotella, Porphyromonas, and Fusobacterium. Education (p=0.03) and age (p=0.02) were associated with weighted UniFrac distances.Discussion In a diverse sample, we identified variations in the oral microbiome consistent with health inequalities. Further investigation is warranted into possible mediating effects of the oral microbiome in social disparities in diabetes, inflammation, oral health, and preterm birth.