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
. 2025 Feb;16(1):191-195.
doi: 10.1007/s41999-024-01088-6. Epub 2024 Nov 6.

Association of oral frailty with falls in long-term care residents

Taija Puranen  1 , Kaija Hiltunen  2 , Kaisu H Pitkälä  1   3 , Hanna-Maria Roitto  4   5 , Päivi Mäntylä  6   7 , Riitta K T Saarela  1   8
Affiliations

Association of oral frailty with falls in long-term care residents

Taija Puranen et al. Eur Geriatr Med. 2025 Feb.

Abstract

Purpose: We investigated the relationship between oral frailty (OFr) and falls among long-term care residents.

Methods: Residents (N = 254, mean age 84 y, 79% women) participated in this longitudinal cohort study in 2018-2021. OFr was defined by six signs. Demographics, diagnoses, and medications were retrieved from the medical records. Frailty phenotype, sarcopenia and disability were assessed. Number of falls was collected from medical records over 12 months following baseline assessment.

Results: Of participants, 35% fell during follow-up. Of the fallers, 28% were bedridden or needed a wheelchair; among non-fallers, this figure was 73%. In logistic regression analysis after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, stroke, dementia, diabetes, coronary heart disease, number of medications, mobility, walking speed and sarcopenia, OFr did not predict falls (OR for severe OFr 0.13 (95% CI 0.01-1.27). Male sex predicted falls.

Conclusions: No association was found between severe OFr and falls over a 12-month follow-up.

Keywords: Falls; Frailty; Long-term care; Oral frailty.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: None of the authors has a financial or personal conflict of interest with a third party whose interests could be positively or negatively affected by the content of the article. Ethical approval: The protocols for the nutritional study, FINORAL, and merging of the data (register no. HUS/968/2017) were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa. Informed consent: Written informed consent was obtained from the participants or in case of moderate–severe dementia from their closest proxies.

References

    1. Iwasaki M, Watanabe Y, Motokawa K, Shirobe M, Inagaki H, Motohashi Y, Mikami Y, Taniguchi Y, Osuka Y, Seino S, Kim H, Kawai H, Sakurai R, Edahiro A, Ohara Y, Hirano H, Shinkai S, Awata S (2021) Oral frailty and gait performance in community-dwelling older adults: findings from the Takashimadaira study. J Prosthodont Res 65(4):467–473. 10.2186/jpr.JPR_D_20_00129 - PubMed
    1. Kamide N, Ando M, Murakami T, Sawada T, Hata W, Sakamoto M (2024) The association of oral frailty with fall risk in community-dwelling older adults: a cross-sectional, observational study. Eur Geriatr Med 15:279–283. 10.1007/s41999-023-00863-1 - PubMed
    1. Shao L, Shi Y, Xie XY, Wang Z, Wang ZA, Zhang JE (2023) Incidence and risk factors of falls among older people in nursing homes: systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Med Dir Assoc 24(11):1708–1717. 10.1016/j.jamda.2023.06.002 - PubMed
    1. Kotronia E, Brown H, Papacosta O, Lennon LT, Weyant RJ, Whincup PH, Wannamethee SG, Ramsay SE (2022) Oral health problems and risk of incident disability in two studies of older adults in the United Kingdom and the United States. J Am Geriatr Soc 70(7):2080–2092. 10.1111/jgs.17792 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Morley JE (2020) Editorial: Oral Frailty. J Nutr Health Aging 24(7):683–684. 10.1007/s12603-020-1438-9 - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources