Nutritional Status and Oral Frailty: A Community Based Study

Abstract

Compromised oral health can alter food choices. Poor masticatory function leads to imbalanced food intake and undesirable nutritional status. The associations among nutritional status, oral health behavior, and self-assessed oral functions status were investigated using a community-based survey. In total, 701 subjects more than 50 years old living Ebina city located southwest of the capital Tokyo were investigated. The number of remaining teeth was counted by dental hygienists. Oral health behavior and self-assessed oral functions were evaluated by oral frailty checklist. Nutritional status was evaluated by the brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire using Dietary Reference Intakes for Japanese as reference. More than 80% of subjects’ intakes of vitamin B12, pantothenic acid, copper, and proteins were sufficient. In contrast, only 19% of subjects’ intake of vitamin A was sufficient and 35.5% for vitamin B1. More than 90% of subjects’ intakes of vitamin D and vitamin K were sufficient. Only 35.5% of subjects’ intakes of dietary fiber were sufficient. Overall, 88.9% of subjects had excess salt. The number of remaining teeth was not correlated with nutritional intakes. Oral health behavior significantly correlated with nutritional intakes. Oral functions are important for food choice; however, oral functions were not directly correlated with nutritional intakes. Comprehensive health instructions including nutrition and oral health education is necessary for health promotion.

Structure and Validity of Questionnaire for Oral Frail Screening

“…In this study, we analyzed the validity of the oral frailty checklist widely used in Japan [ 11 ]. The oral frailty checklist consisted of three latent variables.…”

“…The questionnaire was distributed to subjects more than 50 years old. In the booth, dental hygienists counted the number of remaining teeth under the supervision of dentists [ 11 ].…”

“…The oral frailty checklist proposed by the Japan dental association was used [ 11 ]. The checklist consisted of 8 items: 1: Harder to eat hard food than half a year ago.…”

“…To investigate the latent variables and their correlations of the items in the oral frailty checklist, factor analysis and structural equation modeling was carried out [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. The analysis was performed by SPSS ver 24.0 (IBM, Tokyo, Japan) and AMOS ver 24.0 (IBM, Tokyo, Japan).…”

Mortality- and Health-Related Factors in a Community-Dwelling of Oldest-Older Adults at the Age of 90: A 10-Year Follow-Up Study

“…For factor-associated mortality, path analysis was performed [ 51 ]. The root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was used for the goodness of fit index [ 65 , 66 ]. SEM and path analysis were carried out using AMOS ver24.0 (IBM, Tokyo, Japan).…”