Abstract In the elderly population, ageing frequently impacts on the different aspects of oral physiology that play a key role in eating behavior. In the context of an aging population, it is crucial to develop a food supply tailored for the elderly people in order to prevent the onset of malnutrition. To meet this challenge, we looked for the concept of “oral comfort” when eating a food. The present study aimed at i) exploring the concept of oral comfort when eating according to elderly people in order to develop a questionnaire to evaluate the oral comfort when eating a food and ii) asking elderly people to evaluate various meat and cereal products using this questionnaire. Results of focus groups highlighted that oral comfort when eating a food is a multi-dimensional concept which includes dimensions related to food oral processing (ability to form and swallow food bolus), food sensory properties (texture and taste) and to a lesser extent pain sensations. Furthermore, the oral comfort questionnaire developed in the present study enabled a discrimination of products and highlighted the fact that some products supposed to fit with elderly people capacities and needs were not rated as the most comfortable foods by the elderly people. The concept of oral comfort when eating a food should be taken into account by those who are willing to design food products tailored to the elderly population. The questionnaire could be an interesting tool to assess oral comfort when eating a food in the elderly population.

中文翻译：

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口腔舒适度：从食物感官特征角度理解老年人期望的新概念

摘要 在老年人群中，老龄化经常影响口腔生理学的不同方面，而口腔生理学在饮食行为中起关键作用。在人口老龄化的背景下，开发适合老年人的食品供应以防止营养不良的发生至关重要。为了迎接这一挑战，我们在进食时寻找“口腔舒适度”的概念。本研究旨在 i) 探索老年人进食时口腔舒适度的概念，以制定一份评估进食时口腔舒适度的问卷，以及 ii) 要求老年人使用此问卷评估各种肉类和谷物产品. 焦点小组的结果强调，吃食物时的口腔舒适度是一个多维概念，其中包括与食物口腔加工相关的维度（形成和吞咽食物丸的能力）、食物感官特性（质地和味道）以及较小程度的疼痛感觉。此外，本研究中开发的口腔舒适度问卷能够区分产品，并强调了一个事实，即一些应该适合老年人能力和需求的产品并未被老年人评为最舒适的食物。那些愿意设计适合老年人口的食品的人应该考虑吃食物时口腔舒适的概念。该问卷可能是一种有趣的工具，可用于评估老年人口进食时的口腔舒适度。