Multi-dimensional frailty and Oral Health-Related Quality-of-Life in older adults: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

Frailty is an age-associated decline of physiological functions, with psychological, social and environmental dimensions. Frailty is associated with oral health and well-being. We aimed to determine the association between Oral Health-Related Quality-of-Life (OHRQoL) and multi-dimensional frailty in older Colombians.

METHODS

An observational study was conducted and included 1,079 older adults aged 60 to 105 years from Pasto, Colombia, recruited from different government programs targeting older adults. Socio-demographic characteristics were registered; OHRQoL was determined using the self-administered Colombian Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI) version, and frailty using the Comprehensive Frailty Assessment Instrument (CFAI) and covariates identified with directed acyclic graph (DAG) analysis. A descriptive analysis and a generalized linear model (GLM) were performed.

RESULTS

The sample was comprised of 386 males (35.8%) and 693 (64.2%) females. The mean age was 71.85 years (standard deviation, SD=8.55). The mean GOHAI was 49.60 (SD=8.91). GLM found that overall frailty dimensions of the CFAI negatively impacted OHRQoL with psychological dimension having the largest impact (β= -0.44, 95% CI:-0.54- -0.34, P<0.001).

CONCLUSION

Comprehensive frailty assessment allows us to map various dimensions of frailty and the impact they have on OHRQoL.