Association between Poor Oral Health and Frailty in Middle-Aged and Older Individuals: A Cross-Sectional National Study

F. Diaz-Toro, Fanny Petermann-Rocha*, S. Parra-Soto, C. Troncoso-Pantoja, Y. Concha-Cisternas, F. Lanuza, E. Dreyer Arroyo, A. Celis, C. Celis-Morales

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objectives: Older adults with poor oral health may be at higher risk of being pre-frail or frail. However, very few studies have examined this association in Latin American countries and middle-aged individuals. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the association between oral health and frailty status among Chilean adults ≥40 years. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting and Participants: We included 3,036 participants ≥40 years from the Chilean National Health Survey 2016–2017. Methods: Frailty status was assessed with a 49-item frailty index, while the number of teeth, self-reported oral health, tooth decay, use of prostheses, and oral pain were the oral health conditions included. To assess the association between oral health conditions and frailty, we used multinomial logistic regression models status adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle variables. Results: Overall, 40.6% and 11.8% of individuals were classified as pre-frail and frail, respectively. After adjusting for confounders, individuals with ≤20 teeth had a higher likelihood of being frail (odds ratio (OR): 1.94 [95% CI: 1.18–3.20]) than people with >20 teeth. Moreover, people with bad or very bad oral health, as well as oral pain, had a higher likelihood of being pre-frail (OR: 2.04 [95% CI: 1.40–2.97] and OR: 2.92 [95% CI: 1.58–5.39], respectively). Middle-aged individuals with fewer teeth and poor self-reported oral health had a higher likelihood of being pre-frail and frail than people ≥60. Conclusions and Implications: Individuals with poor global oral health were more likely to be pre-frail or frail. This association seems to be stronger in people <60 years old. Our results are consistent with previously published reports.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)987-993
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Nutrition, Health and Aging
Volume26
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Serdi and Springer-Verlag International SAS, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • Frail
  • middle-aged
  • older adults
  • oral health

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