Anticholinergic Burden and Dry Mouth in Middle-Aged People

Anticholinergic burden refers to the cumulative effect of taking 1 or more drugs with anticholinergic properties. At the moment, little is known about the association between the anticholinergic burden and dry mouth.

The objective of this article was to study, whether an anticholinergic burden is associated with dry mouth among middle-aged people.

The study population included 1,345 people aged 46 y from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) study, who took part in a clinical medical and dental examination during 2012-2013. Medication data comprised both self-reported drug use and information obtained from the national register. Anticholinergic burden was measured using 10 different anticholinergic scales. Dry mouth was defined on the basis of having either a subjective feeling of dry mouth (xerostomia) or objectively measured low unstimulated or stimulated whole salivary flow rates (hyposalivation). Poisson regression models with robust error variance were used to estimate relative risk (RR). Regression models were adjusted for sex, smoking, diabetes, rheumatoid diseases, depressive symptoms, anxiety, total number of drugs, and antihypertensive drugs.

Approximately 14% of the participants reported having xerostomia and about 2% had hyposalivation. The RRs of different anticholinergic scales for xerostomia varied from 1.05 to 1.68. The scales' RRs were between 0.89 and 2.03 for low unstimulated whole salivary flow (<0.1 mL/min) and between 0.59 and 1.80 for low stimulated whole salivary flow (<0.7 mL/min). Seven of 10 studied anticholinergic scales associated statistically significantly with dry mouth, either with xerostomia or hyposalivation.

Most of the anticholinergic scales were associated with dry mouth, either with xerostomia or hyposalivation. There was considerable variation in the strength of the associations between anticholinergic scales and dry mouth.

The findings of this study suggest that dentists should take notice of the use of drugs with anticholinergic properties and their harmful effects among middle-aged people. Dentists should provide these patients with necessary guidance on how to cope with dry mouth and give them prophylactic measures against oral diseases associated with dry mouth.