Background

To prevent involuntary weight loss in older people, the knowledge about factors affecting body weight (BW) is essential. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the longitudinal associations of multiple oral health aspects with BW in community-dwelling older adults.

Methods

This analysis is based on prospective data with a 10-year follow-up of 657 Dutch community-dwelling older adults (age 66.4 ± 5.8 years, 54% female) from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Participants’ characteristics, BW, and 12 oral health variables (teeth, dentures, nine oral problems, self-rated oral health) were assessed in 2005/07 and 2015/16. The association between oral health and BW was analyzed by mixed models and adjusted for demographic, socio-economic, smoking, health, and functional aspects considering data of both assessments.

Results

Mean BW was 79.1 ± 13.3 kg at baseline (B) and 77.6 ± 13.8 kg at follow-up (FU). At baseline, 29.6% of the participants reported being edentulous (FU:34.4%) and 55.8% to wear dentures (FU:62.3%). Dental pain while chewing was the oral problem with the lowest (B:5.2%, FU:6.6%) and xerostomia with the highest prevalence at both examinations (B:24.3%, FU:30.0%). Most participants rated their oral status as healthy (B:65.2%, FU:66.9%). Neither edentulism and denture use nor oral problems showed a longitudinal association with BW. In contrast, self-rated oral health was associated with BW (b = 0.724, SE = 0.296, p = 0.015) after adjusting for multiple confounders.

Conclusions

In community-dwelling older adults self-rated oral health may indicate changes in body weight in the long term. Therefore, this simple measure could serve to identify a risk for weight loss and to initiate oral interventions in clinical practice.

中文翻译：

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口腔健康与体重的关联：一项针对居住在社区的老年人的前瞻性研究。

背景

为了防止老年人自愿减肥，必须了解有关影响体重（BW）的因素。因此，我们旨在调查社区居住的老年人中口腔健康与BW的纵向关联。

方法

该分析基于前瞻性数据，对阿姆斯特丹纵向老龄化研究的657名荷兰社区居民老年人（年龄66.4±5.8岁，女性54％）进行了为期10年的随访。在2005/07年度和2015/16年度评估了参与者的特征，体重和12种口腔健康变量（牙齿，假牙，9种口腔问题，自我评估的口腔健康）。通过混合模型分析了口腔健康与体重之间的关联，并考虑了两种评估的数据，针对人口，社会经济，吸烟，健康和功能方面进行了调整。

结果

基线（B）的平均体重为79.1±13.3千克，随访（FU）的平均体重为77.6±13.8千克。基线时，有29.6％的参与者报告为无牙（FU：34.4％），有55.8％的人戴假牙（FU：62.3％）。在两次检查中，咀嚼时的牙痛是最低的口腔问题（B：5.2％，FU：6.6％），口腔干燥症的患病率最高（B：24.3％，FU：30.0％）。大多数参与者将其口腔状况评为健康（B：65.2％，FU：66.9％）。无牙无牙，义齿使用或口腔问题均未显示出与BW的纵向关联。相反， 在对多个混杂因素进行调整后，自我评估的口腔健康状况与体重相关（b  = 0.724，SE = 0.296，p = 0.015）。

结论

在社区居住的老年人中，长期自我评估的口腔健康状况可能表明体重发生了变化。因此，这种简单的措施可用于确定体重减轻的风险并在临床实践中启动口服干预措施。