Relationship between oral health, nutrient intake and nutritional status in a sample of Brazilian elderly people

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between the oral health condition, the nutrient intake and the body mass index (BMI) in elderly people. BACKGROUND: Impaired dentition has been associated with an inadequate consumption of key nutrients and with changes in nutritional status in elderly people. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample comprised 887 elderly people, aged 60 and over, of whom 816 underwent a clinical oral examination and were allocated into groups according to the numbers of teeth and number of posterior occluding pairs of natural teeth. Nutritional status was determined using the BMI. Dietary intake was assessed by a 24-h diet recall interview and the data from these records were converted to nutritional intake using DietPro software. Differences between means were evaluated using ANOVA, together with the Tukey test or Dunnet test, according to the normality of the data. Associations between categorical variables were tested using chi-square analysis. RESULTS: Ages ranged from 60 to 96 years (mean, 71.46 years), with 47% of the respondents in the 60-to 69-year-old group. A high DMFT index (mean, 27.81) was observed with the missing component accounting for 88.8% of the index. Significant differences were observed between the mean intake of nutrients and the number of posterior occluding pairs of natural teeth (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found between the number of teeth and BMI. CONCLUSION: Nutrient intake is associated with the oral health status as defined by clinical measures.