Accumulated poor oral status strongly predicted the onset of adverse health outcomes, including mortality among the community-dwelling elderly. Prevention of oral frailty at an earlier stage is essential for healthy aging.

We recommend that more evidence should be gathered from clinical studies and trials to clarify our diagnostic criteria and management strategies.

Age-related differences in oral function were found in older adults. Moreover, frail older individuals had significantly poorer oral function than prefrail and robust individuals. The risk of frailty was associated with lower occlusal force, masseter muscle thickness, and ODK rate.

Aim:To develop a simple screening test to identify older adults at high risk for sarcopenia. Methods:We studied 1971 functionally independent, community-dwelling adults aged 65 years or older randomly selected from the resident register of Kashiwa city, Chiba, Japan. Data collection was carried out between September and November 2012. Sarcopenia was defined based on low muscle mass measured by bioimpedance analysis and either low muscle strength characterized by handgrip or low physical performance characterized by slow gait speed. Results:The prevalence of sarcopenia was 14.2% in men and 22.1% in women. After the variable selection procedure, the final model to estimate the probability of sarcopenia included three variables: age, grip strength and calf circumference. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, a measure of discrimination, of the final model was 0.939 with 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.918-0.958 for men, and 0.909 with 95% CI of 0.887-0.931 for women. We created a score chart for each sex based on the final model. When the sum of sensitivity and specificity was maximized, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for sarcopenia were 84.9%, 88.2%, 54.4%, and 97.2% for men, 75.5%, 92.0%, 72.8%, and 93.0% for women, respectively. Conclusions:The presence of sarcopenia could be detected using three easily obtainable variables with high accuracy. The screening test we developed could help identify functionally independent older adults with sarcopenia who are good candidates for intervention. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2014; 14 (Suppl. 1): 93-101.

Aim: It has been reported that if nutrient intake is unbalanced, muscle mass, muscle strength and physical performance declines, and therefore it is important to maintain chewing ability to keep a balanced nutrient intake. However, the relationship between chewing ability and sarcopenia has not been previously reported. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between chewing ability and sarcopenia in addition to known sarcopenia-related factors.Methods: We examined 761 subjects (average age 73.0 ± 5.1 years), who lived in the Itabashi city of Tokyo. Our research was designed to examine the relationship between chewing ability and sarcopenia. We performed regression analysis to analyze the relationship with sarcopenia-related factors with consideration of the age of the subjects.Results: The 761 subjects were divided into two groups in terms of the stage of sarcopenia according to whether there was a deterioration of muscle strength or physical performance. Furthermore, we performed logistic regression analyses on the value as a dependent variable, including known 3 sarcopenia-related factors. There were significant correlations of sarcopenia with age (odds ratio (OR) = 2.37, 95% CI = 1.52-3.70), BMI (OR = 0.75, CI = 0.69-0.81) and chewing ability (OR = 2.18, CI = 1.21-3.93).Conclusions: This study shows that chewing ability is related to sarcopenia、 which is equal to the relationship with the known factor of age by odds ratio.