Importance of Occlusal Force for Dietary Intakes in 80-year-old Japanese

Objectives: There has been growing interests in the association between the number of teeth and dietary intakes in elderly people. However, a lot of old-old people have already lost most of their teeth. Therefore masticatory function could not be evaluated by the number of teeth, and the dental prostheses replacing the missing teeth should play an important role in masticatory function. The occlusal force of full dental arches could reflect not only the number of teeth but the effect of removable dentures. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of dietary intakes with the number of teeth or occlusal force in independently living 80-year-old Japanese.
Methods: The study population was 760 community-dwelling people aged 79-81 years old. Bilateral maximal occlusal force in the intercuspal position was measured with pressure-sensitive sheets. Removable denture wearers kept their dentures in place during the measurements. Food and nutrient intakes during the preceding month were assessed using a brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire. We assessed the linear trends in food and nutrient intakes for the number of teeth or occlusal force after adjusting for gender and socioeconomic factors (gender, education, economic status, family form and resident area). P-values < 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.
Results: The number of teeth was not associated with intakes of any food examined. In contrast, decline of occlusal force was significantly associated with lower intakes of vegetables, fish and shellfish, protein, polyunsaturated fatty acids, dietary fiber and most of vitamins and minerals examined(P for trend< 0.05).
Conclusions: Occlusal force was significantly associated with more kinds of dietary intakes than the number of teeth in independently living Japanese octogenarians.