Association Between Oral Function and Underweight in Dental Outpatients Under Regular Maintenance: A Cross-Sectional...

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Oral Health
• Nutritional Science

Background:

• Declining oral function is increasingly linked to general health issues like frailty and sarcopenia via nutritional status.
• General dental treatment may improve overall health, but direct causal links require further clarification.
• Understanding the prevalence of oral hypofunction in dental maintenance patients is crucial for dentists.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the prevalence of oral hypofunction in dental maintenance outpatients aged over 50.
• To investigate the relationships among oral hypofunction, age, and underweight status in this population.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study of 107 dental maintenance outpatients (mean age 72.9 years).
• Oral hypofunction assessed using specific tests; nutritional status evaluated by Body Mass Index (BMI) using Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria for Asians.
• Data analyzed using two-way ANOVA and general linear models (GLM) to assess associations between oral hypofunction, age groups, and underweight status.

Main Results:

• Overall prevalence of oral hypofunction was 50.5%.
• The oral hypofunction group was significantly older than the non-hypofunction group (75.5 vs. 70.3 years).
• Age group was significantly associated with oral diadochokinesis (ODK); a significant interaction between age and underweight was found for tongue coating index (TCI).

Conclusions:

• Around half of dental outpatients in maintenance care exhibit oral hypofunction, particularly prevalent in older individuals.
• While a clear association between oral hypofunction and underweight was not consistently found, the small underweight sample size limits definitive conclusions.
• Further research is needed to fully elucidate the complex relationship between oral hypofunction, aging, and nutritional status.