Department of Conservative Dentistry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
BMC Oral Health. 2014 Jun 13;14:70. doi: 10.1186/1472-6831-14-70.
The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of oral health conditions on cognitive functioning on basis of data samples from several European countries.
Secondary analyses were conducted of data from wave 2 of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) which includes 14 European countries and is intended to be representative of each country's middle and later adulthood population. Information on word recall, verbal fluency, and numeracy as well as information on chewing ability and denture wearing status was available for a total of 28,693 persons aged 50+. Multivariate regression analysis was used to detect influences of oral health parameters on cognitive functioning (p < 0.05).
Persons with good chewing ability or without dentures had significantly better word recall, verbal fluency, and numeracy skills than persons with chewing impairment or with dentures. The observed patterns of parameter estimates imply differential oral health impacts on numeracy compared to word recall and verbal fluency.
The present study provides novel large-scale epidemiological evidence supportive of an association between oral health and cognitive functioning. Future research should intend to verify the precise causal links between oral health conditions, various cognitive dimensions, and their neural correlates.
本研究旨在基于来自多个欧洲国家的样本数据，考察口腔健康状况对认知功能的影响。
对欧洲健康、衰老和退休调查（SHARE）第 2 波的数据进行二次分析，该调查包括 14 个欧洲国家，旨在代表每个国家中年及以后成年人的人口情况。共有 28693 名 50 岁以上的人提供了关于单词回忆、语言流畅性和计算能力以及咀嚼能力和戴假牙状况的信息。多变量回归分析用于检测口腔健康参数对认知功能的影响（p<0.05）。
咀嚼能力良好或不戴假牙的人在单词回忆、语言流畅性和计算能力方面明显优于咀嚼功能受损或戴假牙的人。观察到的参数估计模式表明，口腔健康对计算能力的影响与单词回忆和语言流畅性不同。
本研究提供了新的大规模流行病学证据，支持口腔健康与认知功能之间存在关联。未来的研究应旨在验证口腔健康状况、各种认知维度及其神经相关性之间的确切因果联系。
