Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 May 9;18(1):111.
doi: 10.1186/s12877-018-0805-4.

Relationship between occlusal force and falls among community-dwelling elderly in Japan: a cross-sectional correlative study

Maki Eto  1 , Shinji Miyauchi  2
Affiliations

Relationship between occlusal force and falls among community-dwelling elderly in Japan: a cross-sectional correlative study

Maki Eto et al. BMC Geriatr. .

Abstract

Background: Falls may cause serious health conditions among older population. Fall-related physical factors are thought to be associated with occlusal conditions. However, few studies examined the relationship between occlusal force and falls. To identify the association between occlusal force and falls among community-dwelling elderly individuals in Japan, public health nurses conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study.

Methods: We performed extensive physical assessments of five items: maximum occlusal force, handgrip strength, maximal knee extensor strength, one-leg standing time with eyes open and body sway. We also conducted a questionnaire survey concerning the participants' demographic characteristics, health status and fall experience during the past year. Mean scores and standard deviations were calculated for age and the total points of the index of activities of daily living. Associations were examined using Mann-Whitney tests and logistic regression.

Results: We examined 159 community-dwelling people aged ≥65 years, who were independent and active, including 38 participants (24.5%) with experience of falls in the past year. Maximum occlusal force had significant correlation with handgrip strength, maximal knee extensor strength, and one-leg standing time and body sway (P < .05, respectively). We found weak associations between participants with and without a history of falls in terms of the five physical measurements. Logistic regression analysis showed that fall experience was significantly associated with maximum occlusal force (P = 0.004).

Conclusions: This is the first study, led by public health nursing researchers, to examine the associations between maximum occlusal force and falls among community-dwelling elderly in Japan. The results showed that maximum occlusal force was significantly related to the other four extensive physical assessments, and might also suggest that maximum occlusal force assessment by public health nurses could contribute to more sophisticated and precise prediction of fall risks among the community-dwelling elderly. The latest occlusal force measurement device is non-invasive and easy to use. Public health nurses can introduce it at periodical community health checkup assembly events, which might contribute to raising awareness among community-dwelling elderly individuals and public health nurses about fall prevention and prediction.

Keywords: Community-dwelling elderly; Falls; Occlusal force; Public health nurses.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was formally approved by the institutional review board of Ube Frontier University (approval number 2013005). The researcher gave oral and written information, and obtained written informed consent from all participants before the extensive physical assessment and questionnaire. Participation was voluntary and the participants gave consent for the research use of data from the extensive physical assessment and questionnaire in the manuscript.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

    1. Chen SF, Huang SF, Lu LT, Wang MC, Liao JY, Guo JL. Patterns of perspectives on fall-prevention beliefs by community-dwelling older adults: a Q method investigation. BMC Geriatr. 2016;16:132. doi: 10.1186/s12877-016-0307-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gilasi HR, Soor H, Yazdani S, Tenjani PT. Fall-related injuries in community- dwelling older adults in Qom Province, Iran, 2010-2012. Arch Trauma Res. 2015;4(1):e22925. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Morris JN, Howard EP, Steel K, Berg K, Tchalla A, Munankarmi A, David D. Strategies to reduce the risk of falling: cohort study analysis with 1-year follow-up in community dwelling older adults. BMC Geriatr. 2016;16:92. doi: 10.1186/s12877-016-0267-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Goto J, Hosoya T, Kobayashi A, Kanoya Y, Ohtake M, Morikagi Y. Factors associated with functional capacity decline risk over 6-year period among independent elderly persons living in the community. J Jpn Acad Community Health Nurs. 2014;16(3):65–74.
    1. Moreland JD, Richardson JA, Goldsmith CH, Clase CM. Muscle weakness and falls in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2004;52(7):1121–1129. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2004.52310.x. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types