Functional Oral-Motor Skills: Do They Change with Age?

Abstract

Dysphagia, a difficulty eating or drinking, appears to increase with age and is a concern for our growing elderly population. Mastication, tongue mobility, and lip closure are skills of the oral phase of ingestion, and have been shown to deteriorate with age. However, it is not clear whether these changes affect functional feeding. It is also unclear whether dysphagia is the result of the aging process itself, or whether it is secondary to disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify changes during the oral phase of ingestion in a group of healthy seniors. Functional feeding skills and oral praxis abilities were measured in 79 healthy adults aged 60-97 years. The Modified Functional Feeding Assessment (FFAm) subscale of the Multidisciplinary Feeding Profile (MFP) and the Oral Praxis Subtest (OPS) of the Southern California Sensory Integration Test were administered respectively. An interview followed to obtain information on denture wear, use of hearing aids and glasses, and types of foods avoided. Seniors maintained functional feeding skills throughout the four decades studied. These skills were not age-dependent, but depended on whether or not subjects wore full dentures. Even though all of the seniors maintained functional feeding skills, more seniors in the younger group (7th decade 60%, 8th decade 67%) had difficulty with a variety of food textures such as soft, hard, fibrous, and some with tough skins, than the older group (9th decade 40%, 10th decade 44%). Oral praxis abilities were correlated significantly with age, but not with hearing aid use. Overall, healthy seniors maintained their functional feeding and oral praxis skills. Good health and natural dentition appear to be excellent indicators for functional feeding ability.

Reliable Lip Force Measurement in Healthy Controls and in Patients with Stroke: A Methodologic Study

“…There was no significant difference between measurements by different investigators or between repeated examinations by the same investigator. A greater variation in lip force between repeated tests in controls favors the interpretation that reliability depends more on the investigated subject [14] than on the investigator. It is obvious that a strong muscle performance is difficult to repeat with proportionally the same magnitude as a weak muscle force.…”

“…Could the higher median age of the stroke group influence the findings of reduced lip force in the stroke group? Because lip force did not show any correlation with age [14], the difference in median age between the two study groups was unlikely to have affected the lip force results.…”

Age-related changes in orolingual motor function in F344 vs F344/BN rats

“…In addition to bradykinesia (slowed movements) and gait disturbances, diminished orolingual motor function is also associated with human aging. These alterations, which include dysarthria, dysphagia and masticatory deficits, contribute to increased mortality and morbidity in the elderly [3,11,20]. Like locomotor deficits, orolingual motor deficits also accompany Parkinson's disease (PD) [1,17], suggesting that altered basal ganglia function may play a role in their occurrence.…”

“…Because of their functional relevance, orolingual deficits have been studied extensively in elderly human volunteers (e.g., [11]). Very few studies, however, have examined age-related changes in orolingual motor function using animal models.…”

McGill Ingestive Skills Assessment (MISA): Development and First Field Test of an Evaluation of Functional Ingestive Skills of Elderly Persons

“…They required minimal supervision and assistance by nursing staff in activities of daily living. Sixteen subjects were living in the community and were recruited through contact lists from a previous study of well elderly persons [29]. These individuals had no ingestive or health problems serious enough to require supervision.…”