Relationship between Tongue Pressure and Nutritional Risk/Diet Modification in Older Inpatients

Abstract

　Background：There have been few reports on the relationship between tongue pressure and nutritional status. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between tongue pressure and nutritional status or diet modification in older patients admitted to a general hospital.

　Method：One hundred sixty-five patients aged 65 years or older（96 males and 69 females；mean age 83.5±8.2 years）who were referred to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of a general hospital were included in this study, and divided into medium/severe nutritional risk and no/mild nutritional risk groups based on the Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index and normal/chopped diet and soft/paste diet groups according to the dietary patterns. Difference in maximal tongue pressure（MTP）between the groups was examined.

　Results：MTP in the medium/severe nutritional risk group（n＝148, 14.1±9.6 kPa）was significantly lower than that in the no/mild nutritional risk group（19.8±10.8 kPa）（p＝0.043）. MTP in the soft/paste diet group（n＝88, 12.4±9.6 kPa）was lower than that in the normal/chopped diet group（16.9±9.6 kPa）（p＝0.001）. The cut-off values based on the ROC curve of MTP for the medium/severe nutritional risk and soft/paste diet were 18.6 kPa and 16.5 kPa, respectively.

　Conclusion：Reduced maximum tongue pressure in general hospital elderly inpatients was associated with nutritional risk and low dietary patterns, and the cut-off values for predicting them were lower than that for “reduced tongue pressure” as one of the sub-symptoms of “oral-hypofunction.”