Oral health, frailty and physical activity levels: is there a link?

Introduction. Oral frailty is associated with decreased quality of life and general health in older adults.

Objective: to assess the relationship between oral frailty, physical frailty and physical functioning decline.

Methods: An epidemiological cross-sectional Eucalyptus study of adults aged 65 years and older (n=396). The main study parameters: oral health status, chronic diseases, a comprehensive geriatric assessment, complete blood count.

Results: 75.5% (n=299) of participants had less than half teeth. 87% of them used removable/fixed dentures or implants. Despite the high frequency of denture use, 9.4% (n=37) of study participants reported difficulties in pronunciation of words and 19.2% (n=76) complained of pain/discomfort when chewing food due to oral health/teeth/dentures. After adjusting for sex, age, cognitive decline, number of remaining teeth, denture/implant use, nutritional status and stroke/TIA, heart failure, chewing or speech problems due to problems of the oral cavity associated with teeth / oral mucosa / dentures were associated with low grip strength with OR (95% CI) 2.738 (1.306–5.737) and 2.494 (1.045– 5.952) respectively and frailty with OR (95% CI) 2.513 (1.083–5.829) in the group of study participants with difficulty in pronunciation of words. The association between chewing difficulty and frailty was significant after adjusting for sex, age, cognitive decline, number of remaining teeth, denture/implant use, nutritional status, and stroke/TIA with OR (95% CI) 2.002 (1.020–3.931), but disappeared after adjusting for heart failure.

Conclusion: Chewing or pronunciation difficulties due to oral health problems were associated with an increased risk of frailty, and low levels of physical functioning. All patients with frailty and low physical function should be consulted by a prosthodontist.

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