Relationship between the nutritional status and the oral function among community-dwelling dependent elderly persons

Abstract

Aim: We herein examined the relationship between the nutritional status and the oral function among community-dwelling dependent elderly persons. Methods: The subjects included 218 community-dwelling dependent elderly persons. The data were collected via questionnaires, including information regarding age, sex, the level of care required, nutritional status and swallowing function. We used the Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) to measure the nutritional status and the Dysphagia Risk Assessment for the Community-dwelling Elderly (DRACE) to evaluate the swallowing function. The tongue pressure and the labial closure force were measured using a tongue pressure measurement system (JMS Co. Ltd., Hiroshima, Japan) and the Lip de Cum (Cosmo-Instruments Co, Ltd, Tokyo, Japan). Results: The mean MNA-SF score was 10.07±2.58. The mean DRACE score was 4.39±3.80. The mean tongue pressure was 23.89±10.61 kPa. The mean labial closure force was 10.17±6.04 N. The results of bivariate regression analyses showed that there was a poor correlation between the MNA-SF and the DRACE, tongue pressure and labial closure force. Furthermore, the multiple regression analysis with the MNA-SF as the dependent variable revealed a correlation between the DRACE and labial closure force (p<0.01, R²=0.02). Conclusions: Our results suggest that the nutritional status is significantly related to the swallowing function and labial closure force among community-dwelling dependent elderly persons.