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.”

　Objective：In June 2021, statistics on social medical care practice in June 2020（two years and two months after the introduction of coverage by medical insurance）were released. The purpose of this study was to clarify the actual conditions of examination and management of oral hypofunction.

　Subjects and methods：Based on the statistics on social medical care practice announced in June 2019, 2020, and 2021, the implementation situation of examination and management of oral hypofunction newly covered by National Health Insurance was investigated.

　Results：The number of “first-visit patients aged 65 and over” decreased to 2.25 million, 1.88 million, and 1.25 million, respectively. As a result, the number of examinations and management cases increased slightly from 2019 to 2020, but the implementation rate for the number of first-visit patients was 1.8 times higher.

　Discussion：The number of examinations and management has increased only slightly, which is considered to be due to the effects of COVID-19, but it is becoming more widespread. However, it is still low compared to the prevalence of oral hypofunction. It is suggested that further efforts for dissemination are necessary.

　Conclusion：Although examinations and management of oral hypofunction have become widespread, it is necessary to spread them further.