title: Oral and nutritional status in frail elderly.
abstract: 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).
authors.affiliation: Herttoniemi Health Center, Helsinki, Finland. helena.soini@dlc.fi
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Soini
authors.forename: Pirkko
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Routasalo
authors.forename: Sirkka
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lauri
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ainamo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016321:Dental Care for Aged; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D003778:Dentures; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006699:Home Care Services; D018577:Homebound Persons; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009066:Mouth, Edentulous / Q000503:physiopathology; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009910:Oral Hygiene; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014987:Xerostomia / Q000503:physiopathology