Influence of the Food Intake Ability and the Number of Remaining Teeth on Oral Health Related Quality of Life in Some Elderly People

Kim, Da Hye; Hwang, Soo Jeong

Abstract

Eating supports to gain energy and nutrition and improves quality of life. Ageing affects the food intake ability due to loss of natural teeth and the progressive muscle degeneration. Our objective was to investigate how the food intake ability (FIA) and the remaining teeth could influence on oral health related quality of life in the elderly. This study was performed with 503 elderly subjects living in Daejeon, Korea. The questionnaire with the FIA with 30 Korean food and Oral Health Impact Profile 14 (OHIP-14) and oral examination were surveyed. The five groups according to cluster analysis of FIA had the different numbers of remaining teeth and functional posterior teeth with opposing teeth or prosthesis significantly: group 1, 21.78±8.27 and 2.80±2.63; group 2, 16.75±7.87 and 2.16±2.44; group 3, 14.68±9.77 and 1.73±2.30; group 4, 9.93±8.13 and 0.78±1.68; group 5, 10.18±8.37 and 0.51±1.22. The more foods the subjects could masticate, the better oral health related quality of life they had. The medium FIA, soft FIA and the number of remaining teeth could explain 46% of OHIP-14, but hard FIA could not in the multiple regression model. We suggested to develop the oral health program for the elderly to be able to eat the food with medium physical property at least be helpful to improve oral health related quality of life.