Association between oral health and physical performance in Brazilian older adults: SABE cohort study

Oral health is recognized as integral to general health and impaired dentition status may affect physical performance among older adults. This study evaluated the longitudinal association between clinical and self-reported oral health measures and physical performance (outcome) in Brazilian older adults.

This was a longitudinal study that used data from the second (year 2006), third (year 2010) and fourth (year 2015) waves of the Health Well-being and Aging Study conducted in Brazil. Physical performance, evaluated using the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), was the dependent variable. Independent variables of interest were the number of teeth, presence of periodontal pocket, use of dental prostheses, and poor perceived oral health. The association between oral health measures and physical function was analyzed using generalized estimating equations with an ordinal regression model.

In the total sample, every additional tooth was associated with a greater chance of achieving a higher score on the SPPB test. Individuals wearing dental prostheses had higher chances of having higher scores than those not wearing them. In the analyses for the dentate sample, the presence of a periodontal pocket was not associated with SPPB and the increase in the number of teeth increased the chance of achieving a higher score.

A greater number of teeth, and using dentures, were associated with higher physical performance. Periodontal disease was not associated with the outcome.