Intervention Study of Exercise Program for Oral Function in Healthy Elderly People

Abstract

In Japan, one of the duties of the long-term care insurance system is the prevention of oral function degradation. Although various exercise programs for oral function have been developed and practiced in Japan, to date, no study has reported their effects. In the present study, we examined the effects of an exercise program on oral functions in healthy elderly people. Healthy elderly people participated in the study and were randomly divided into intervention and control groups (39 subjects/group). The exercise program consisted of four exercises: exercise for expression muscles, tongue, salivary glands, and swallowing. Before and after a six-month intervention period, we evaluated changes in oral functions, namely bite force, swallowing ability, and salivary flow rate. Fifty-four subjects completed the study protocol: 26 and 28 subjects from intervention and control groups, respectively. A significant improvement in all oral functions, including bite force, swallowing ability, as well as unstimulated and stimulated salivary flow rate, was observed in the intervention group after six months, whereas no improvement was observed in the control group. Further, among the intervention group, a significant improvement in oral functions was observed in 17 subjects with 20 or more remaining teeth, whereas no improvement was observed in the other nine with less than 20 teeth. Our results suggest that oral functions significantly improve after conducting a six-month exercise program for oral function. Further, this improvement appears to be influenced by the number of remaining teeth.exercise program for oral function; healthy elderly people; long term care insurance; stretching exercise; number of remaining teeth.Tohoku

Effectiveness of an oral function intervention for older Taiwanese people

“…Oral function exercises have been developed in Japan for many years, and researchers in many studies in Japan have reported its effectiveness for improving oral function of older people . In addition, some studies have found that bite force as well as stimulated and non‐stimulated saliva secretion increased significantly after oral function exercise intervention . Kikutani et al found that oral function exercise intervention can increase the degree of nutrient absorption in the long‐term care of older people.…”

“…The oral health education programme employed various education materials for instruction, mainly regarding oral diseases common among older people, oral hygiene and oral function exercises. The oral function exercises comprised four physical exercises adapted from previous studies: verbal expression muscle exercises, tongue exercises, salivary gland massage, and swallowing and pronunciation exercises. The detailed procedures and effects of oral function exercises are described in Table …”

Quality of life and oral health in elderly

“…Aging is accompanied by a gradual physiological deterioration which drives to a reduction in daily activities. The oral functions are also affected, such as the salivary secretion, which results in xerostomia and tooth loss, influencing directly the strength of chewing and swallowing (16). Elderly living in nursing homes are the most vulnerable group to suffer from oral problems.…”

Qualitative analysis of the vocabulary used in work logs of a preventive programme for elderly oral function and nutrition

“…These results may indicate that subjective improvements had increased after 13 months and hence another set of interventions may be started and maintained within 24 months. In this study, we divided the intervention period into six months based on a previous study, which had reported improvements in bite force, RSST and salivary flow rate after a six‐month preventive care programme . However, no study has reported on the suitable intervention period for such analyses.…”