Association of the Oral Frailty Index-8 With the Diagnosis and Results of Oral Hypofunction Testing.

Abstract

Background: Oral frailty is associated with physical frailty and the risk of requiring nursing care and death in older people. The Oral Frailty Index-8 (OFI-8) was developed for self-assessment of oral frailty, assuming that high-risk patients will visit a dentist for oral hypofunction tests. However, the screening utility of the OFI-8 for oral hypofunction and the relationship between them remain unclear.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to elucidate the relationship between the OFI-8 and the diagnosis and results of oral hypofunction tests through a cross-sectional survey of older outpatients visiting dental clinics.

Methods: Outpatients (n = 120) who underwent diagnostic tests for oral hypofunction were enrolled. The survey items encompassed age, sex, oral hypofunction test results and the OFI-8 score. The relationships between oral hypofunction diagnosis and the OFI-8 score and between the oral hypofunction test and OFI-8 scores were analysed.

Results: Binomial logistic regression analysis showed that the higher the total OFI-8 score was, the more likely the diagnosis of oral hypofunction (odds ratio = 1.76) was. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identified a cut-off OFI-8 score of 3 for detecting oral hypofunction (area under the curve = 0.77). Multiple regression analysis showed that oral dryness, occlusal force, number of teeth, masticatory function, swallowing function and number of items with functional decline were significantly associated with high OFI-8 scores. Oral hygiene, tongue-lip motor function and tongue pressure were less sensitive to the OFI-8.

Conclusion: The OFI-8 is useful for screening oral hypofunction, exhibiting considerable potential effectiveness in detecting oral dryness, occlusal, masticatory and swallowing dysfunctions.