Abstract
The oral health state plays an important role in the concept of ‘elderly frailty’, since institutionalized older people are prone to suffering from bad oral conditions. The aim of this study is to assess the state of oral health in the older residents of nursing homes and to measure its potential association with the cognitive state, the degree of functional autonomy, and the malnutrition risk. Methods: We enrolled 176 subjects from 292 residents in five nursing homes in Florence. For each subject, we performed the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool, the Pfeiffer test, the Minimum Data Set—Long Form, a dental examination, and the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index questionnaire. The results show that the oral condition was poor in 43.8% of cases, medium in 38.1%, and good in 18.2%. A worse oral health state was significantly associated (p < 0.05) with a worse cognitive state and with a higher dependency in daily living activities. The malnutrition score among the older people was unrelated to the oral health condition (p = 0.128). It can be concluded that the oral health condition in older institutionalized subjects is an open challenge for the public healthcare system, since the maintenance of adequate good oral health is an essential element of good physical as well as cognitive and psychological health.
Highlights
With an expected population of 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100 [1], and the proportion of older people rising, the healthcare needs for these people are increasing as well.Ageing is currently occurring throughout the world, both in the richest and the poorest nations: at present, there are an estimated 962 million people aged 60 or over (13% of the global population), projected to be 1.4 billion in 2030, 2.1 billion in 2050, and 3.1 billion in 2100 [1].In Western countries, ageing represents a challenge for the sustainability of the social and healthcare systems
It can be concluded that the oral health condition in older institutionalized subjects is an open challenge for the public healthcare system, since the maintenance of adequate good oral health is an essential element of good physical as well as cognitive and psychological health
In nursing homes (NHs), which are often overcrowded owing to the increasing requests for admissions, diet and oral health represent two fundamental aspects of the quality of care provided, meaning that their measure cannot be ignored [18]. For these reasons, according to the literature, the objective of this research was to assess the oral conditions in the older residents of NHs by means of a multidimensional approach, which takes into account the cognitive state, the degree of functional autonomy, and the malnutrition risk, and to measure the potential association between oral health and these factors
Summary
With an expected population of 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100 [1], and the proportion of older people rising, the healthcare needs for these people are increasing as well.Ageing is currently occurring throughout the world, both in the richest and the poorest nations: at present, there are an estimated 962 million people aged 60 or over (13% of the global population), projected to be 1.4 billion in 2030, 2.1 billion in 2050, and 3.1 billion in 2100 [1].In Western countries, ageing represents a challenge for the sustainability of the social and healthcare systems. With an expected population of 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100 [1], and the proportion of older people rising, the healthcare needs for these people are increasing as well. Ageing is currently occurring throughout the world, both in the richest and the poorest nations: at present, there are an estimated 962 million people aged 60 or over (13% of the global population), projected to be 1.4 billion in 2030, 2.1 billion in 2050, and 3.1 billion in 2100 [1]. Europe has the greatest percentage of population aged 60 or over (25%) [1], and Italy represents one of the eldest countries: people aged 65 or more constitute 22.6% of the population [2], expected to rise up to 26.9% in 2030, reach a maximum of 33.9% in 2050, and . Public Health 2019, 16, 3492; doi:10.3390/ijerph16183492 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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