Department of Global Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU), 1-5-45, Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan.
Department of Health Promotion, National Institute of Public Health, Wako-shi, Saitama 351-0197, Japan.
Age Ageing. 2023 Sep 1;52(9). doi: 10.1093/ageing/afad180.
Poor oral health has been linked to an increased risk of mortality. People with good cooking skills may be able to cope with problems caused by oral dysfunction, such as restricted food choice. This study investigated whether cooking skills modified the association between oral health status and mortality. A 3-year follow-up was conducted among participants of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a population-based cohort study of Japanese adults aged 65-101 years. Oral health assessment comprised number of teeth and three oral functions (awareness of swallowing difficulty, decline in masticatory function, and dry mouth). Cooking skills were assessed using a valid scale adapted for Japanese participants. Mortality from 2016 to 2019 was analysed for 10,121 respondents. Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios for mortality risk adjusting for potential confounders, including sociodemographic factors and health status. During the follow-up, there were 488 deaths (4.8% of all participants). Both fewer teeth and poor oral function were associated with a greater mortality risk. Cooking skills modified the association only for oral function. Stratification by cooking skill score showed that the hazard ratios for ≥2 oral difficulties (vs. none) was 2.06 (95% confidence interval: 1.43-2.96) among those with low cooking skills and 1.25 (95% confidence interval: 0.92-1.71) among those with high cooking skills after adjusting for potential confounders. Improving cooking skills may be key to mitigating health risks owing to poor oral functions.
口腔健康状况不佳与死亡率增加有关。烹饪技巧好的人可能能够应对口腔功能障碍引起的问题，例如食物选择受限。本研究调查了烹饪技巧是否改变了口腔健康状况与死亡率之间的关联。对日本老年人评估研究的参与者进行了为期 3 年的随访，这是一项针对日本 65-101 岁成年人的基于人群的队列研究。口腔健康评估包括牙齿数量和三项口腔功能（吞咽困难意识、咀嚼功能下降和口干）。烹饪技能使用适用于日本参与者的有效量表进行评估。分析了 10121 名受访者在 2016 年至 2019 年期间的死亡率。使用 Cox 回归模型，在校正潜在混杂因素（包括社会人口因素和健康状况）后，估计死亡率风险的危险比。在随访期间，有 488 人死亡（所有参与者的 4.8%）。牙齿数量少和口腔功能差都与更高的死亡率风险相关。烹饪技巧仅对口腔功能的关联具有修饰作用。按烹饪技巧评分分层显示，在调整潜在混杂因素后，低烹饪技巧者中≥2 项口腔困难（与无困难相比）的危险比为 2.06（95%置信区间：1.43-2.96），高烹饪技巧者为 1.25（95%置信区间：0.92-1.71）。提高烹饪技巧可能是减轻因口腔功能不佳而导致的健康风险的关键。
