Effects of oral environment on frailty: particular relevance of tongue pressure

Figures & data

Table 1 Univariate analysis of the residents’ characteristics

Variables		Healthy (n=420)	Frail (n=47)	P
Age, y		68.8±6.5	74.4±7.8	<0.001^a
Sex	Male	160 (38.1%)	13 (27.7%)	0.160^b
	Female	260 (61.9%)	34 (72.3%)
BMI, kg/m^2		23.2±3.1	24.4±3.7	0.050^a
Muscle index, kg/m^2		15.7±1.7	15.5±1.4	0.722^a
Smoking (pack-years)		7.1±16.1	5.5±15.3	0.254^a
Alcohol consumption, g/day		10.1±19.0	7.1±20.8	0.076^a
Exercise habit (days/week)	None	282 (67.2%)	41 (87.4%)	0.102^c
	1	36 (8.6%)	1 (2.1%)
	2–3	32 (7.6%)	1 (2.1%)
	4–5	14 (3.3%)	1 (2.1%)
	6–7	56 (13.3%)	3 (6.3%)
Number of teeth		17.3±9.4	10.9±10.2	<0.001^a
Periodontitis	No	64 (16.9%)	7 (20.6%)	0.589^b
		Yes	314 (83.1%)	27 (79.4%)
Tongue pressure (kPa)		29.5±8.2	24.1±9.4	0.001^a
ODK hypofunction	No	166 (39.5%)	14 (29.8%)	0.193^b
	Yes	254 (60.5%)	33 (70.2%)
/pa/, times/s		6.3±0.8	5.9±0.9	0.004^a
/ta/, times/s		6.2±0.8	5.7±1.1	0.002^a
/ka/, times/s		5.8±0.7	5.4±1.1	0.010^a

Notes: ^aMann–Whitney test. ^bchi-squared test. ^cFisher’s exact test. Data are presented as means ± standard deviation or n (%).

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; ODK, oral diadochokinesis; pack-years, (number of cigarettes smoked per day/20) x number of years smoked.

Table 2 Multivariate analysis of factors affecting frailty (logistic regression)

	P	Odds ratio	95% CI
Age, y	0.003	1.077	1.025–1.132
BMI, kg/m^2	0.007	1.138	1.036–1.250
Number of teeth	0.032	0.963	0.930–0.997
Tongue pressure, kPa	0.029	0.956	0.919–0.996

Notes: Dependent variable: Frailty. Independent variables: age, BMI, muscle index, history of smoking (pack-years), alcohol consumption history, number of teeth, tongue pressure, oral diadochokinesis syllables. Only results of variables with p<0.05 (age, BMI, number of teeth and tongue pressure) are shown.

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; CI, confidence interval.

Table 3 Multivariate analysis of factors affecting tongue pressure (multiple regression)

	β	P
Age, y	–0.319	<0.001
Muscle index, kg/m^2	0.186	<0.001
Number of teeth	0.097	0.036

Notes: Adjusted R²=0.170. Dependent variable: tongue pressure. Independent variables: age, muscle index, number of teeth, body mass index. Only results of variables with p<0.05 (age, muscle index, and number of teeth) are shown.