Chewing difficulty and frailty trajectories in Chinese nursing home residents: A prospective cohort study

Abstract

AimTo investigate frailty trajectories in nursing home residents, and to test whether chewing difficulty was a significant factor associated with frailty trajectories.MethodsThis is a 1‐year prospective cohort study. Data were collected from 27 nursing home residents in China at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Latent class growth modeling was used to identify frailty trajectories. Multilevel multinomial logistic regression was used to test the relative risk ratios (RRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of the chewing difficulty assessed at baseline on frailty trajectories.ResultsIn total, 269 nursing home residents were included in the analysis. Three frailty trajectories identified were non‐frailty trajectory (n = 181, 67.3%), stable frailty trajectory (n = 52, 19.3%), and progressive frailty trajectory (n = 36, 13.4%). Chewing difficulty was found among 138 (51.3%) nursing home residents. With the non‐frailty trajectory group as the reference, residents with chewing difficulty were more likely to demonstrate stable frailty trajectory (RRR = 2.55, 95% CI [1.28–5.11]) or progressive frailty trajectory (RRR = 3.46, 95% CI [1.47–8.15]).ConclusionsChanges in the frailty of nursing home residents are heterogeneous and chewing difficulty should be assessed and addressed on a routine basis in nursing homes to prevent the deterioration of frailty or reverse it. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2023; ••: ••–••.