Oral function and nutritional status in non-acute hospitalised elders

Abstract

Introduction: Malnutrition and risk of malnutrition continues to be a common finding in elders, yet its association with oral function in hospitalised patients remains unclear. Material and methods: Patients aged 70 years or over who had been hospitalised for non-acute rehabilitation were recruited. Nutritional risk was screened using the Mini-Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF) and Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS) scores. Malnutrition was assessed according to the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria. All participants underwent the oral hypofunction test battery, evaluating oral hygiene, oral dryness, occlusal force, tongue-lip motor function, tongue pressure, masticatory and swallowing function. Statistical analyses comprised Mann-Whitney or Kruskal-Wallis tests. Bivariate associations between categorical variables were tested using the Pearson chi-square test; for continuous variables, the Spearman correlation was calculated. A P-value