Early life exposures and risk of salivary gland diseases in childhood: A 28-year nationwide cohort study

BACKGROUND: Limited research has been conducted on salivary gland diseases in childhood, including disease etiology and associated risk factors. This study examines how early-life exposures influence the rate of salivary gland disease.

OBJECTIVE: To access the association between early-life exposures and salivary gland disease in childhood as well as to examine sex and age distribution and time trends.

METHODS: The study was a nested case control study in children, matching five controls to each case between 1994 and 2022. We assessed the association between seven early-life exposures and three categories of salivary gland diseases: juvenile recurrent parotitis (JRP), salivary stones and salivary retention cysts. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for each association.

RESULTS: We identified 4778 cases and 23,890 controls: 2637 cases of JRP, 765 cases of salivary stones and 1376 cases of salivary retention cysts. Preterm birth (HR 1.24, 95 % CI 1.05; 1.47), low birth weight for gestational age (HR 1.38, 95 % CI 1.13; 1.69), young maternal age (HR 1.53, 95 % CI 1.20; 1.94) and low income (HR 1.27, 95 % CI 1.11; 1.45) were all positively associated with JRP. Maternal overweight (HR 0.85, 95 % CI 0.74; 0.97) had a negative association with JRP. No early-life exposure was significantly associated with salivary stones or retention cysts.

CONCLUSION: Children born preterm, small for gestational age, by young mothers, and with low household income, had an increased rate of developing nonspecific salivary gland disease, likely juvenile recurrent parotitis. In contrast, such associations were not identified for any other salivary gland disease.