Oral frailty dissected and conceptualized: A scoping review

A statistical model to predict oral frailty based on information obtained from questionnaires might help to estimate its prevalence and clarify its determinants. In this study, we aimed to develop and validate a predictive model to assess oral frailty thorough a secondary data analysis of a previous cross-sectional study on oral frailty conducted on 843 patients aged ≥ 65 years. The data were split into training and testing sets (a 70/30 split) using random sampling. The training set was used to develop a multivariate stepwise logistic regression model. The model was evaluated on the testing set and its performance was assessed using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The final model in the training set consisted of age, number of teeth present, difficulty eating tough foods compared with six months ago, and recent history of choking on tea or soup. The model showed good accuracy in the testing set, with an area of 0.860 (95% confidence interval: 0.806–0.915) under the ROC curve. These results suggested that the prediction model was useful in estimating the prevalence of oral frailty and identifying the associated factors.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model to Predict Oral Frailty Based on a Questionnaire: A Cross-Sectional Study

Yamamoto

Tanaka

Hirano

et al. 2022

“…Because the health assessment questionnaire for old-old adults includes 12 items to assess the multidimensional aspects of frailty, such as physical, cognitive, and social aspects, we then used CFA to examine whether the 12 frailty-related items in this questionnaire fit the multidimensional model of frailty [ 15 ]. Recent review articles have described that an assessment tool for frailty should include physical, psychological, cognitive, and social dimensions [ 16 , 17 ], and the physical domain includes three factors: physical function, nutritional status [ 15 ], and oral health status [ 18 ]. We assume that, behind these five frailty-related domains, there is a concept of multidimensional frailty that affects each of the five domains.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Construct Validity of a New Health Assessment Questionnaire for the National Screening Program of Older Adults in Japan: The SONIC Study

Ishizaki

Masui

Nakagawa

et al. 2022

The Japanese government has implemented a new screening program to promote measures to avoid worsening lifestyle-related diseases and frailty among the older population. In this effort, the government formulated a new health assessment questionnaire for the screening program of old-old adults aged ≥75 years. The questionnaire comprises 15 items, of which 12 address frailty, two address general health status, and one addresses smoking habits. This study examined the construct validity of this questionnaire, using the explanatory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The data used in this study were drawn from a mail-in survey conducted in 2020 as part of the Septuagenarians, Octogenarians, Nonagenarians Investigation with Centenarians study. A total of 1576 respondents (range, 78–99 years of age) were included in the study. Although the EFA did not show an interpretable factor structure of the questionnaire with 15 items, the CFA using only 12 frailty-related items showed the goodness of fit for a higher-order factor “frailty”, and the five frailty-related sub-factors model was acceptable. These results suggest that the total score of the 12 frailty-related items in the questionnaire can be used as an indicator of the degree of “frailty”.

“…Oral frailty is a stage prior to oral disfunction. Oral frailty has been defined as a decrease in oral function together with a decline in cognitive and physical functions and has been recognized and related to the broader concept of frailty [19,44,45]. By addressing oral frailty, attention will most likely be drawn to oral dysfunction instead of dysfunction in broader domains of human functioning (physical, psychological, social) [10].…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oral Health and Frailty in Community-Dwelling Older Adults in the Northern Netherlands: A Cross-Sectional Study

Dros

Sealy

Krijnen

et al. 2022

The aim of this study was to explore the association between oral health and frailty in community-dwelling Dutch adults aged 55 years and older. Included were 170 participants (n = 95 female [56%]; median age 64 years [IQR: 59–69 years]). Frailty was assessed by the Groningen Frailty Indicator. Oral health was assessed by the Oral Health Impact Profile-14-NL (OHIP-NL14). OHIP-NL14 item scores were analyzed for differences between frail and non-frail participants. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the association between oral health and presence of frailty. The multivariate analysis included age, gender, and depressive symptoms as co-variables. After adjustment, 1 point increase on the OHIP-NL14 scale was associated with 21% higher odds of being frail (p = 0.000). In addition, significantly more frail participants reported presence of problems on each OHIP-NL14 item, compared to non-frail participants (p < 0.003). Contrast in prevalence of different oral health problems between frail and non-frail was most prominent in ‘younger’ older adults aged 55–64 years. In conclusion: decreased oral health was associated with frailty in older adults aged ≥55 years. Since oral health problems are not included in most frailty assessments, tackling oral health problems may not be sufficiently emphasized in frailty policies.