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. 2022 Mar;39(1):74-82.
doi: 10.1111/ger.12612. Epub 2021 Dec 16.

Oral function and nutritional status in non-acute hospitalised elders

Midori Ohta  1   2 , Yoshiki Imamura  1   3   4 , Najla Chebib  1 , Regina Maria Schulte-Eickhoff  5 , Sandrine Allain  5 , Laurence Genton  6 , Philippe Mojon  1 , Christophe Graf  5 , Takayuki Ueda  2 , Frauke Müller  1   5
Affiliations

Oral function and nutritional status in non-acute hospitalised elders

Midori Ohta et al. Gerodontology. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Introduction: Malnutrition and risk of malnutrition continues to be a common finding in elders, yet its association with oral function in hospitalised patients remains unclear.

Material and methods: Patients aged 70 years or over who had been hospitalised for non-acute rehabilitation were recruited. Nutritional risk was screened using the Mini-Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF) and Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS) scores. Malnutrition was assessed according to the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria. All participants underwent the oral hypofunction test battery, evaluating oral hygiene, oral dryness, occlusal force, tongue-lip motor function, tongue pressure, masticatory and swallowing function. Statistical analyses comprised Mann-Whitney or Kruskal-Wallis tests. Bivariate associations between categorical variables were tested using the Pearson chi-square test; for continuous variables, the Spearman correlation was calculated. A P-value < .05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Sixty patients aged a mean 82.5 ± 7.0 years participated. Some 88.3% were diagnosed with oral hypofunction, and this was more common in older patients (P = .020). Analysing the 7 oral hypofunction tests as an interval variable (NiOF) revealed additional correlations with number of teeth (ρ = 0.477) as well as the nutritional risk, evaluated by the MNA-SF (ρ = -0.284) and NRS (ρ = 0.317) scores. NiOF scores were higher among denture wearers (P = .003). GLIM did not confirm the correlation with NiOF. Biomarkers such as serum albumin and CRP were not associated with the NiOF score.

Conclusion: In this sample, the association between oral function and nutritional state is more obvious in nutritional risk scores than in the malnutrition diagnosis by GLIM.

Keywords: GLIM; MNA-SF; ageing; malnutrition; nutrition; older adults; oral function; oral hypofunction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. Funding of the salary of Yoshiki Imamura and Midori Ohta for 1.5 months was received from the GC Corporation. Otherwise, the study was entirely run with institutional funds of the University of Geneva.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow chart for patient participation from screening to analysis
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Rate of positive and negative diagnoses per oral function
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
NiOFs in patients without denture, with 1 or 2 partial dentures or upper and lower complete dentures
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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