Sociodemographic, general health and oral health factors associated with difficulty in eating among elderly people: a cross-sectional study, Brazil, 2019.

OBJECTIVE

To identify sociodemographic, general health, and oral health factors associated with difficulty in eating among elderly people in Brazil.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional, population-based study that used data from the 2019 National Health Survey with elderly people (60+ years). Crude analysis was performed using the chi-square test to verify associations between variables and difficulty in eating. After investigating multicollinearity, adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) were calculated using Poisson multiple regression. Cramer's V was used to measure effect size.

RESULTS

The sample consisted of 21,048 elderly individuals. Prevalence of severe or very severe difficulty in eating was 4.1% (95% confidence interval [95%CI] 3.7; 4.5). Multivariate analysis revealed that this condition was higher for females (PR 1.00; 95%CI 1.00; 1.01), older age (PR 1.01; 95%CI 1.00; 1.03), being illiterate (PR 1.01; 95%CI 1.00; 1.01), smoking (PR 1.01; 95%CI 1.00; 1.02), not having health insurance (PR 1.01; 95%CI 1.00; 1.01), multimorbidity (PR 1.01; 95%CI 1.01; 1.02), not brushing teeth daily (PR 1.07; 95%CI 1.03; 1.12) and not using dentures (PR 1.02; 95%CI 1.01; 1.02). Cramer's V indicated that associations that were significant had a weak effect.

CONCLUSION

Eating difficulties among the elderly were greater in those with unfavorable socioeconomic conditions, smokers, those with multimorbidity, those with inadequate oral hygiene and those who did not use dentures. The associations found suggest a weak relationship, indicating that other factors may also influence eating difficulties.