jsr5-2026-03-04_18_24_01-s12903-023-03640-5.pdf
jsr5-2026-03-04_18_24_01-s12903-023-03640-5.pdf
Associations of oral health status and swallowing function with cognitive impairment in the aging population: a cross-sectional study
Abstract
Abstract
Background The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships of oral health status and swallowing function with cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults from Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
Methods In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed the data of two hundred fifteen participants aged fifty years and above which were retrieved from the Xiangya and Panasonic mild cognitive impairment Study, a community-based study conducted among the residents of the urban areas of Hunan province in China. Demographic information of all participants was collected. We determined oral function by evaluating oral hygiene, oral dryness, occlusal force, tongue pressure, chewing function, swallowing function, remaining teeth number, and other indicators. The mini-mental state examination was used to screen for cognitive function. The relationship between each oral function evaluation item and cognitive function was investigated using correlation analysis. The associations between oral health status and swallowing function with cognitive impairment were inferred using multiple regression analysis.
Results The general characteristics of participants showed statistically significant correlation coefficients in number of teeth remaining (P equals zero point zero zero three) and number of teeth lost (P is less than zero point zero zero zero one). Almost half of the twenty-five participants (forty-eight percent) were aged from seventy to eighty years. Only twenty-five older adults (eleven point six percent of the participants) were determined to have cognitive impairment by mini-mental state examination scores less than twenty-four. Tongue pressure in male participants was the only significant independent variable that was associated with cognitive impairment (P equals zero point zero one nine seven one). The results indicate that male participants with lower mini-mental state examination scores had a relative deficiency in tongue pressure.
Conclusions In this cross-sectional study, the oral health status and swallowing function of participants were in relatively good condition and showed low correlations with cognitive impairment. However, lower tongue pressures were associated with lower mini-mental state examination scores in males, indicating it could serve as a novel oral function index for evaluating cognitive impairment.