Association between disability and periodontal diseases in older adults

Periodontal diseases and functional disability are important issues of collective health among the aging groups of people. Therefore, it is of interest to establish the relationship between disability status and prevalence and severity of periodontal diseases in community- based older adults aged 65 years and above. Hence, a total of 384 of them received a complete periodontal examination and disability evaluation based on Barthel Index and Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale, with the disability being none, mild, moderate and severe. Findings showed a much higher prevalence of moderate-to-severe periodontitis in the disabled (78.3 percent) than in non-disabled persons (52.1 percent, p=0.001) and also that multivariate analysis showed that severe disability independently predicted periodontal disease (OR=3.84, 95 percent CI: 2.17-6.79, p=0.001) after controlling confounders. Thus, we show the urgent necessity of the combination of geriatric care that would help to prevent the cyclical decline of aging groups by targeting both functional capacity and oral health preservation.