La mala salud bucodental y la fragilidad son factores de riesgo de neumonía adquirida en la comunidad. Estudio de casos-control

Abstract

Objective

To determine if poor oral health and frailty are risk factors for community-acquired pneumonia in adults.

Design

Case-control study in a population ≥ 18 years.

Place

The cases of pneumonia admitted to the Hospital of Mataró were matched with controls of the same sex and age (± 5 years) who had not had pneumonia in the last 12 months and who were visiting admitted relatives.

Participants

During two years (June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2020) 102 cases of patients admitted with CAP and 102 controls were identified and recruited.

Interventions

All participants gave their signed consent to participate in the study, sociodemographic, anthropometric variables, comorbidities, functional capacity, toxic habits, vaccinations and swallowing disorders were collected.

Main Measurements

Oral health was assessed with the General Oral Health Assessment Index, frailty with the FRAIL test, and quality of life with the EUROQ-5D test.

Results

Bivariate analysis: pneumonia is associated with an oral health index ≤ 57 (OR 4.63), being frail (OR 18.5), dental visit in the last 3 months (OR 0.42), daily tooth brushing (OR 0.26) and having some personal care problem (OR 3.29). The multivariate analysis shows an independent association between the appearance of pneumonia and poor oral health (OR 6.16), being a former smoker (OR 5.65) and being frail (OR 49.7).

Conclusions

Being frail and having poor oral health are independent risk factors for CAP.