Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to identify and report the changes in oral frailty diagnosis among older Korean adults according to age and sex. Methods: The study included 217 individuals aged 60 years or older who visited senior centers. The final analysis included 100 individuals with complete data on the diagnostic items of oral frailty. After subdividing by age and sex, the average of each age group for diagnostic items was analyzed. Results: The items with oral hypofunction tended to increase sequentially with oral dryness, tongue pressure, occlusal force, and chewing ability as the age group increased. Individuals aged 65-69 years old were considered pre-orally frail and those over 70 years old were determined to be orally frail. The diagnosis of oral frailty and decline in oral function in females was observed to be much faster than in males. Conclusions: This study confirmed that the number of items with decreased oral function increased sequentially with age in older adults and these characteristics also differ according to sex. These findings can be used to prevent deterioration into oral hypofunction and serve as primary data for the phased early detection of oral frailty.
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