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. 2020 Dec;37(4):342-352.
doi: 10.1111/ger.12468. Epub 2020 Mar 6.

Rate of oral frailty and oral hypofunction in rural community-dwelling older Japanese individuals

Yoshihiro Kugimiya  1 , Yutaka Watanabe  2   3 , Takayuki Ueda  1 , Keiko Motokawa  2 , Maki Shirobe  4 , Kentaro Igarashi  5 , Daichi Hoshino  6 , Tomofumi Takano  1 , Kaoru Sakurai  1 , Yu Taniguchi  7 , Akihiko Kitamura  8 , Shoji Shinkai  9 , Hirohiko Hirano  2
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Free article

Rate of oral frailty and oral hypofunction in rural community-dwelling older Japanese individuals

Yoshihiro Kugimiya et al. Gerodontology. 2020 Dec.
Free article

Abstract

Objective: To clarify the rate of oral frailty and oral hypofunction in rural community-dwelling older adults in Japan.

Background: Recently, the oral function of Japanese older adults has been evaluated multilaterally based on two concepts: oral frailty and oral hypofunction. Oral frailty is defined as a decrease in the oral function accompanied by a decrease in mental and physical functions. Oral hypofunction is a disease where the oral function is comprehensively decreased. However, their rates have not yet been elucidated.

Materials and methods: Oral frailty and oral hypofunction were evaluated in 679 older adults from rural areas. To investigate the differences in occurrence rates due to the evaluation methods, one of the subordinate symptoms of oral hypofunction, the reduced occlusal force, was evaluated based on both the occlusal force (main method) and the number of teeth (alternative method).

Results: The rate of oral frailty was 22.3% in men and 22.7% in women. The rate of oral hypofunction was 39.0% in men and 46.9% in women. The overall rate of oral hypofunction was 43.6% when the reduced occlusal force of oral hypofunction was evaluated using the main method and 46.4% when evaluated using the alternative method. The proportion of participants with decreased occlusal force, the number of present teeth, oral diadochokinesis, tongue pressure and masticatory performance increased with age in both men and women.

Conclusion: Among rural community-dwelling older adults, the rate of oral frailty was 22.5% and that of oral hypofunction was 43.6%.

Keywords: oral frailty; oral function; oral hypofunction; rural community dwellers.

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References

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