Association between cognitive decline and oral health status in the aging population of Nagpur City: A prospective study

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Background: Till date, no longitudinal prospective study has investigated the association between the oral health status and cognitive decline in the geriatric population, possibly due to past studies differing in target groups and methodologies. We aimed to investigate the association between tooth loss, as evaluated through clinical oral examinations, and the development of cognitive decline in the older adults while considering baseline cognitive function. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to find the association between oral health status and the subsequent development of cognitive decline in older adults of Nagpur, Maharashtra state while considering baseline cognitive function. Materials and Methods: This 1-year prospective cohort study followed 140 participants without cognitive impairment aged ≥65 years (mean age: 70.9 ± 4.3 years) living in the Nagpur, Maharashtra. Cognitive function was evaluated with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in the baseline and follow-up surveys, whereas oral health examination was carried out using Oral Hygiene Index to investigate the association between oral health status and cognitive decline, we applied a multiple logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, gender, hypertension, diabetes, cerebrovascular/cardiovascular disease, hypercholesterolemia, depressive symptoms, body mass index, smoking status, drinking status, duration of education, and baseline MMSE score. Results: In 1 year after the baseline survey, we have obtained an overall incidence of 20.71%. population who developed cognitive decline (i.e., MMSE scores of ≤24). Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that participants with compromised oral health were more likely to develop cognitive decline than those with mild-to-moderate oral health were (odds ratio: 3.31; 95% confidence interval: 1.07–10.2). Age: 1.15 (1.04–1.31), male gender: 4.65 (1.27–16.4), and baseline MMSE scores: 0.49 (0.32–0.75) were also significantly associated with cognitive decline. Conclusion: Poor oral health status was independently associated with the development of cognitive decline within 5 years among the geriatric population of Nagpur. This finding corroborates the hypothesis that oral health may be a predictor or risk factor for cognitive decline.