Oral and nutritional status in frail elderly

• Published in: Special care in dentistry Vol. 23; no. 6; p. 209
• Main Authors: Soini, Helena, Routasalo, Pirkko, Lauri, Sirkka, Ainamo, Anja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.11.2003
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Dental Care for Aged; Dental Caries - physiopathology; Dental Health Surveys; Dentures; Eating; Female; Finland; Frail Elderly; Home Care Services; Homebound Persons; Humans; Male; Mouth Diseases - physiopathology; Mouth, Edentulous - physiopathology; Nutritional Status; Oral Hygiene; Statistics, Nonparametric; Surveys and Questionnaires; Xerostomia - physiopathology; Finland
• ISSN: 0275-1879
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1754-4505.2003.tb00314.x

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).