Abstract
Objective: Oral diadochokinesis (ODK) has been shown to be associated with oral frailty. In this study, we investigate the relationship between physical function, swallowing function, nutritional evaluation, and each syllable of ODK. Methods: The subjects are 26 elderly people living in an area where they can walk. ODK, tongue pressure, modified water swallowing test, EAT-10, grip strength, MNA-SF, skeletal muscle index, height, weight, and BMI were evaluated. For statistical analysis based on ODK values, the subjects were divided into two groups on the basis of the number of times the syllables /pa/, /ta/, and /ka/ were repeated: 1) The first group with >6 repetitions exceeded six; 2) the second group with ≤5 repetitions. Both groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test (Model 1). In addition, the syllables /pa/, /ta/, and /ka/ were also divided among the groups and a comparison was performed (Model 2). Results: In Model 1, the tongue pressure value was significantly higher in the good group (p Conclusion: In community-dwelling elderly people, tongue pressure was positively associated with ODK values for the syllables /pa/ and /ta/, suggesting that tongue pressure may be associated with strength of the lip and tongue tip muscles. Furthermore, it was suggested that the ODK values may even be lower than normal values in the elderly who maintain skeletal muscle mass and thus have adequate tongue pressure; therefore, these indicators may be used as a guideline to assess oral frailty.
Highlights
The elderly are prone to suffering from dysphagia due to presbyphagia
In community-dwelling elderly people, tongue pressure was positively associated with oral diadochokinesis (ODK) values for the syllables /pa/ and /ta/, suggesting that tongue pressure may be associated with strength of the lip and tongue tip muscles
It was suggested that the ODK values may even be lower than normal values in the elderly who maintain skeletal muscle mass and have adequate tongue pressure; these indicators may be used as a guideline to assess oral frailty
Summary
The elderly are prone to suffering from dysphagia due to presbyphagia. They are prone to falling into frailty and sarcopenia compared to the young. Frailty is believed to progress through stages: a social/psychological frailty phase as the 1st stage, a nutritional frailty phase/oral frailty as the 2nd stage, a physical frailty phase as the 3rd stage, and a severe frailty phase as the 4th stage [1]. Nutritional frailty/oral frailty is understood as a precursor stage for physical frailty. It is thought that if discovery and intervention were possible before falling into physical frailty, would it be possible to prevent the progress of frailty, but even to return to a healthy state
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