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Sedative load and salivary secretion and xerostomia in community‐dwelling older people
Author(s) -
Tiisanoja Antti,
Syrjälä AnnaMaija,
Komulainen Kaija,
Hartikainen Sirpa,
Taipale Heidi,
Knuuttila Matti,
Ylöstalo Pekka
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
gerodontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1741-2358
pISSN - 0734-0664
DOI - 10.1111/ger.12129
Subject(s) - medicine , sedative , older people , gerontology , psychiatry
Objective The aim was to investigate how sedative load and the total number of drugs used are related to hyposalivation and xerostomia among 75‐year‐old or older dentate, non‐smoking, community‐dwelling people. Materials and Methods The study population consisted of 152 older people from the Oral Health Ge MS study. The data were collected by interviews and clinical examinations during 2004–2005. Sedative load, which measures the cumulative effect of taking multiple drugs with sedative properties, was calculated using the Sedative Load Model. Results The results showed that participants with a sedative load of either 1–2 or ≥3 had an increased likelihood of having low stimulated salivary flow (<0.7 ml/min; OR : 2.4; CI : 0.6–8.6 and OR : 11; CI : 2.2–59; respectively) and low unstimulated salivary flow (<0.1 ml/min; OR : 2.7, CI : 1.0–7.4 and OR : 4.5, CI : 1.0–20, respectively) compared with participants without a sedative load. Participants with a sedative load ≥3 had an increased likelihood of having xerostomia ( OR : 2.5, CI : 0.5–12) compared with participants without a sedative load. The results showed that the association between the total number of drugs and hyposalivation was weaker than the association between sedative load and hyposalivation. Conclusion Sedative load is strongly related to hyposalivation and to a lesser extent with xerostomia. The adverse effects of drugs on saliva secretion are specifically related to drugs with sedative properties.