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. 2025 Feb;14(1):100008.
doi: 10.1016/j.tjfa.2024.100008. Epub 2025 Jan 1.

Association between oral health-related quality of life and physical frailty among community-dwelling older adults: A 2-year longitudinal study

Satoko Kakuta  1 , Masanori Iwasaki  2 , Yumi Kimura  3 , Takatoshi Hiroshimaya  4 , Ji-Woo Park  5 , Taizo Wada  6 , Yasuko Ishimoto  7 , Michiko Fujisawa  8 , Kiyohito Okumiya  6 , Kozo Matsubayashi  6 , Ryuji Hosokawa  9 , Hiroshi Ogawa  10 , Ryota Sakamoto  6 , Toshihiro Ansai  5
Affiliations

Association between oral health-related quality of life and physical frailty among community-dwelling older adults: A 2-year longitudinal study

Satoko Kakuta et al. J Frailty Aging. 2025 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Frailty is a major health concern among older adults, and its association with oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) remains underexplored in longitudinal studies.

Objective: To investigate the association between baseline OHRQoL and physical frailty incidence at a 2-year follow-up in community-dwelling older adults.

Design: Prospective longitudinal study.

Setting: The study was conducted within the Tosa Longitudinal Aging Study framework in Japan.

Participants: This study included 144 community-dwelling older adults (50 men and 94 women; median age, 81.0 years) with complete data who participated in the Tosa Longitudinal Aging Study in 2016 and 2018 and were not categorized as physical frailty in 2016.

Measurements: Baseline assessment included OHRQoL, which was evaluated using the General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI; range 12-60), with higher scores indicating better OHRQoL, oral function, and general health status. The incidence of physical frailty was defined using the revised Japanese version of the Cardiovascular Health Study criteria. The association between the GOHAI score and physical frailty was assessed using logistic regression analysis.

Results: The median baseline GOHAI score was 58. The incidence of frailty after a 2-year follow-up was 13.9 % among the participants (18.0 and 11.7 % for men and women, respectively). Each point of the GOHAI score was associated with an 11 % reduction in frailty risk over 2 years after adjusting by age, sex, number of teeth, Food Diversity Score, Geriatric Depression Scale score, eating alone, smoking, and more than five medications (adjusted odds ratio: 0.893; 95 % confidence interval: 0.810-0.984).

Conclusions: This longitudinal study showed that a higher baseline OHRQoL, based on the GOHAI score, was linked to a lower incidence of physical frailty among community-dwelling older adults after 2 years.

Keywords: Frailty; Longitudinal studies; Older adults; Oral health-related quality of life; Subjective oral health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

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Fig. 1
Flow chart of participant populations.
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