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Oral and nutritional status in frail elderly
Author(s) -
Soini Helena,
Routasalo Pirkko,
Lauri Sirkka,
Ainamo Anja
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
special care in dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.328
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1754-4505
pISSN - 0275-1879
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-4505.2003.tb00314.x
Subject(s) - medicine , dentition , dentures , dry mouth , saliva , malnutrition , oral health , dentistry , oral examination
This article describes associations between oral health and nutritional status among chronically ill older adults who were living at home and receiving regular professional home care services. A structured questionnaire, oral examination, and Mini‐Nutritional Assessment were completed for 51 subjects (mean age 83.7 years). Two‐thirds of the sample were edentulous, and one‐third had between 2 and 23 teeth (mean 10.59, SD ± 6.92). Sixty percent of subjects complained of xerostomia, while dentists found only 48% to have clinical signs of dry mouth. More than half of the subjects had stimulated saliva rates of < 0.8 ml/min. Stimulated saliva secretion rates were lower for persons with no functional natural dentition or prostheses ( p = 0.012). Subjects assessed their dentures to be more functional than did the dentist ( Kappa 0.338). No one was considered malnourished, 47% were at risk of malnutrition, and 52% were well nourished. The dentist's estimation of dry mouth and eating problems were significantly associated to lower MNA scores ( p = 0.049 and p = 0.015, respectively). Subjects with a natural functioning dentition had higher BMI scores ( p = 0.0485).