Prevalence of symptoms of dry mouth and their relationship to saliva production in community dwelling elderly: the SEE project. Salisbury Eye Evaluation.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the prevalence of dry mouth symptoms and their correlation with saliva production in a population based sample of elderly people in the United States.


METHODS
Two dry mouth questions were administered to and a modified Saxon test was performed in participants in a population based prevalence survey conducted among 2520 noninstitutionalized community dwelling residents of Salisbury, Maryland, aged 65-84 years.


RESULTS
Seventeen percent reported having either dryness of mouth or waking at night feeling dryness in the mouth and needing to drink fluids often or all the time; 10.7% noted the former and 11.5% the latter. The prevalence of dry mouth symptoms increased with increasing age, was greater in women than men, and was greater in whites than blacks. The mean (SD) amount of saliva production was 2.38 (1.00) g/min; mean saliva production decreased with increasing age and was lower in women than men; no difference was noted by race. Persons with dry mouth symptom either often or all the time had significantly lower salivary production, even after adjustment for age and sex.


CONCLUSIONS
Symptoms of dry mouth are common in the community dwelling elderly population, especially in white women, and correlate with decreased salivary production.
Hochberg
M C
MC
Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA.
Tielsch
J
J
Munoz
B
B
Bandeen-Roche
K
K
West
S K
SK
Schein
O D
OD
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D012859:Sjogren's Syndrome / Q000378:metabolism; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014987:Xerostomia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology