Oral-motor function in older people: Exploring new dimensions of frailty

Oral-motor performance for speech and swallowing, and verbal fluency represent important domains that can determine frailty thresholds in older people.

The study aims to explore the association between oral-motor performance and verbal fluency to achieve a comprehensive measurement of the frailty phenotype.

An exploratory and inferential cross-sectional study was carried out in two nursing homes and 2 day care centres. The study comprised a sample of 95 individuals with a mean age of 83 years. The oral-diadochokinesis test (ODDK), water swallow test (WST), time of mastication and swallowing (TOMASS), maximum tongue pressure, verbal fluency, physical phenotype and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were used as measurements variables.

The comparison of mean values between the performance of observed and normative values for the target population was shown to be statistically significant for all the measurements and between the pre-frail and frail.

The results of this study add to the growing body of evidence that oral-motor function for speech and swallowing and verbal fluency are relevant to the diagnosis and management of the frailty condition in older people. The frailty syndrome is more than just the traditionally observed physical function, rather it is a multidimensional construct, where additional dimensions should be considered when evaluating frailty in clinical practice.