Background: Malnutrition and its risk are prevalent in older adults and contribute to frailty, morbidity, and mortality. Poor oral health—particularly tooth loss and inadequate prosthetic rehabilitation—may impair chewing, limit dietary variety, and accelerate nutritional decline. We investigated associations between dentition status, denture use, and nutritional status in a nationally representative sample of Polish older adults. Methods: We analyzed data from 5214 participants aged ≥60 years from the nationwide cross-sectional PolSenior2 study. Dentition status was classified as functional dentition (≥20 teeth), partial dentition (1–19 teeth), or edentulism (0 teeth). Nutritional status was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment—Short Form (MNA-SF); impaired nutritional status was defined as MNA-SF <12 (malnourished or at risk). Additional indicators included hypoalbuminemia (<35 g/L) and small calf circumference (<31 cm). Associations were tested using chi-square and multivariable logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, education, and place of residence. Results: Functional dentition was present in 15.5%, partial dentition in 48.1%, and edentulism in 36.4% of participants. The proportion of edentulous individuals increased across worsening MNA-SF categories (26.2% in well-nourished, 41.8% in at risk, 46.9% in malnourished). In adjusted models, edentulism was associated with higher odds of impaired nutritional status compared with functional dentition (OR: 1.66; 95% CI: 1.32–2.10; p < 0.001), while partial dentition showed a non-significant trend (OR: 1.22; 95% CI: 0.98–1.52; p = 0.077). Among edentulous participants, denture use was more common in well-nourished individuals than in those with impaired nutritional status (93.0% vs. 77.2%), suggesting a possible association between active prosthetic rehabilitation and better nutritional status. Conclusions: In Polish older adults, tooth loss—particularly edentulism—is associated with poorer nutritional status. Screening for malnutrition risk may benefit from incorporating basic oral health and denture-use assessment while improved access to prosthetic rehabilitation may support nutritional resilience in ageing populations.
Dąbrowski et al. (2026) studied this question.