Perceived chewing ability and need for long‐term care in the elderly: a 5‐year follow‐up study

Abstract

Increasing need for long-term care in older adults is expected with the ageing of Japan's population. The aim of the present study was to show the relationship between perceived chewing ability and long-term care needs for over 5 years in elderly persons. The chewing ability of 812 elderly persons living independently was evaluated at baseline using self-assessed masticatory ability, and it was classified into one of three categories: ability to chew all foods (good masticatory ability), ability to chew only slightly hard food (fair masticatory ability), and ability to only chew soft or pureed food (poor masticatory ability). Participants' care needs were then followed through Japan's long-term care insurance system for over 5 years. The log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard model were used to examine statistical differences in the frequency of care-needs certification between participants with good and fair or poor masticatory ability. Among participants aged 65-79 years, the frequency of care-needs certification was significantly higher in those with fair or poor masticatory ability than in those with good masticatory ability, and the relative hazard ratio was significantly higher in those with fair or poor masticatory ability than in those with good masticatory ability, after adjusting for age, gender, current employment status, educational background, social interaction, chronic medical conditions and dentition status. These relationships were not found among those aged 80-93 years. Impairment in perceived chewing ability may be associated with higher incidence of certification in Japan's long-term care insurance system among elderly persons aged 65-79.

Dental status and self‐assessed chewing ability in 70‐ and 80‐year‐old subjects in Sweden

“…As expected, the logistic regression analysis showed significant associations between chewing ability and some dental variables, number of teeth being the strongest. The strong association between chewing ability and general health is in line with results of several previous studies in elderly persons (38)(39)(40)(41). Still however, no causal relationship has been proven.…”

Factors associated with deterioration of self‐rated chewing ability among adults aged 60 years and older over a 6‐year period

“…31 The self-reported number of remaining teeth has been associated with a reduction in chewing ability in previous studies. [3][4][5]32 The present investigation makes an important contribution by showing that this aspect represents a significant risk even after controlling for sex, age, skin color, income, marital status and selfrated memory.…”

The relationship between masticatory ability, age, and dental and prosthodontic status in an institutionalized elderly dentate population in Qingdao, China

“…Several studies on masticatory ability explicitly differentiate between soft and hard foods [39][40][41][42]. In the present study, differences in MDS for soft and hard foods were relatively small and varied from approximately 0.3 up to 1.2 ( Table 3).…”