Abstract:
Frailty is a geriatric condition that increases the risk of adverse health outcomes, including falls, hospitalization, disability, and mortality. Socio-demographic, psychological, general health, nutritional and oral health factors are associated with frailty. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of frailty as well as the association between oral health status, nutritional status and physical frailty in community-dwelling older adults (≥ 60 years) in Mae Sai District, Chiang Rai Province. All data of this study were collected by interviewed with structured questionnaire and clinical examination. Frailty was defined based on five components; unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, low level of physical activity, slow walking speed, and low grip strength. Oral health variables collected in the study included number of teeth, posterior occluding pairs, xerostomia and dysphagia. Baseline characteristics of study population included age, gender, education level, household income, number of medications used daily, underlying diseases and comorbidities, body mass index, smoking status, depressive symptoms and nutritional status. Data were analysed using binary logistic regression with significance level at 0.05. Of the 297 older adults samples, 97 were male and 200 were female. The mean age was 70.8 ± 8.05 years. The prevalence rates of frailty and pre-frailty were 12.1% and 49.2% respectively. Age (ORadj = 2.90, 95% CI = 1.68 - 5.02) and posterior occluding pairs (ORadj = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.01 - 2.90) were statistically significant associated with frailty and pre-frailty (p < 0.05). This study indicated that oral health conditions such as the fewer posterior occluding pairs associated with frailty among community-dwelling older adults, independent of socio-demographic and general health status.