Associations of oral health status and swallowing function with cognitive impairment in the aging population: a cross-sectional study

• Published in: BMC oral health 2023-11, Vol.23 (1), p.912-912, Article 912
• Main Authors: Chen, Yong, Li, Canyang, Fan, Yongmei, Jiao, Lili, Silverman, Matthew, Ishimaru, Masashi, Wang, Jing, Van Pelt, Alice J, Wang, Rumi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Air bags; Alzheimer's disease; Analysis; Care and treatment; Cognition disorders; Cognitive ability; Cognitive Dysfunction - complications; Cognitive impairment; Complications and side effects; Correlation analysis; Cross-Sectional Studies; Cross-sectional study; Data collection; Deglutition; Deglutition disorders; Dementia; Disease; Female; Health aspects; Humans; Hygiene; Male; Medical research; Middle Aged; Multiple regression analysis; Older adults; Older people; Oral Health; Oral hygiene; Patients; Pneumonia; Population; Population studies; Pressure; Prevention; Psychological aspects; Questionnaires; Risk factors; Social aspects; Statistical analysis; Swallowing; Swallowing function; Teeth; Tongue; Toothbrushing
• ISSN: 1472-6831; 1472-6831
• DOI: 10.1186/s12903-023-03640-5

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships of oral health status and swallowing function with cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults from Changsha, Hunan Province, China. In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed the data of 215 participants aged ≥ 50 years which were retrieved from the Xiangya and Panasonic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) Study, a community-based study conducted among the residents of the urban areas of Hunan province in China. Demographic information of all participants was collected. We determined oral function by evaluating oral hygiene, oral dryness, occlusal force, tongue pressure, chewing function, swallowing function, remaining teeth number, and other indicators. The mini-mental state examination (MMSE) was used to screen for cognitive function. The relationship between each oral function evaluation item and cognitive function was investigated using correlation analysis. The associations between oral health status and swallowing function with cognitive impairment were inferred using multiple regression analysis. The general characteristics of participants showed statistically significant correlation coefficients in number of teeth remaining (p = 0.003) and number of teeth lost (p