Association between Oral Frailty and Dietary Variety among Community-Dwelling Older Persons: A Cross-Sectional Study

To examine the association between the severity of oral frailty (OF), which is one of the comprehensive oral functions evaluated, and dietary variety in community-dwelling older persons.

Cross-sectional study.

Community-based.

A total of 769 community-dwelling older persons aged 65 and over.

We examined basic demographic information, functional status, cognitive status, depressive symptoms, medical history, and oral functions of the participants.

OF was defined by 1-2 and 3 or more of 6 items of oral function evaluation in the pre-oral frailty and oral frailty groups, respectively. Dietary variety was assessed using the dietary variety score (DVS). The participants were categorized into 3 groups for evaluation: those with a low score (0-2), medium score (3-5), and high score (≥6). Ordinal logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between OF and DVS.

The rate of OF in the participants was 21.6%, and its severity was significantly associated with DVS after adjusting for potential confounders (Pre-OF; adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.687, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.219-2.335, OF; adjusted OR = 2.857, 95% CI = 1.489-5.484).

The severity of OF was significantly associated with DVS in community-dwelling older persons. This suggests that DVS may be useful in understanding the effects of OF on the nutritional status. Further longitudinal studies are needed to elucidate the association between OF and DVS.