Relationship between chewing ability and depressive symptoms

Depression, as one of the most common mental health problems, has many related factors. Recent studies have suggested chewing difficulties as a risk factor for depression in the elderly. This study seeks to investigate whether chewing ability is associated with depressive symptoms in a Korean population.

This study used data from the Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES V) conducted in 2010. Self-reported questionnaires assessed depressive symptoms and chewing ability for the purposes of this study. A total of 6,255 subjects aged over 19 years were included for this study (2,704 males and 3,551 females).

Comparing depressive symptoms with chewing ability (i.e., very poor, poor, moderate, good, and very good), the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and confidence intervals (CI) were 1.05 (95% CI: 0.84-1.32) for good vs. very good (as a reference), 1.31 (95% CI: 1.00-1.73) for moderate vs. very good, 1.41 (95% CI: 1.12-1.78) for poor vs. very good, and 1.76 (95% CI: 1.16-2.76) for very poor vs. very good.

This study suggests that subjects with reduced chewing ability were more susceptible to having depressive symptoms.