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Malnutrition and Oral Disease in the Elderly––Is There Any Bidirectional Relationship?

  • Oral Disease and Nutrition (F Nishimura, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The purpose of the review is to find recent evidence for a bidirectional relationship between oral diseases and malnutrition.

Recent Findings

Electronic search of MEDLINE using PubMed and a manual search of key journals for literature published in English between January 2013 and June 2016, was conducted and resulted in the selection of 25 papers. These selected studies comprised 19 observational studies, which included 17 cross-sectional and 2 longitudinal designs, and 6 interventional studies. A majority of the studies demonstrated a significant association between the following conditions in older adults: older adults with oral diseases are at risk for malnutrition and malnourished older adults are at risk for oral diseases. Treatment with dental prosthesis may have positive effects on the nutritional status of older adults.

Summary

The current review revealed that research findings support a potential bidirectional relationship between oral diseases and malnutrition; however, there is insufficient evidence to draw definitive conclusions. Additional high-quality studies are necessary to accumulate more evidence.

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References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Preventive Dentistry, Department of Oral Health Science, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 2-5274 Gakkocho-Dori, Chuo-Ku, Niigata, 951-8514, Japan

    Masanori Iwasaki, Misuzu Sato, Akihiro Yoshihara & Hideo Miyazaki

  2. Division of Community Oral Health Development, Kyushu Dental University, 2-6-1 Manazuru, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu, 803-8580, Japan

    Masanori Iwasaki

Authors
  1. Masanori Iwasaki
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  2. Misuzu Sato
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  3. Akihiro Yoshihara
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  4. Hideo Miyazaki
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Correspondence to Masanori Iwasaki.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Oral Disease and Nutrition

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Iwasaki, M., Sato, M., Yoshihara, A. et al. Malnutrition and Oral Disease in the Elderly––Is There Any Bidirectional Relationship?. Curr Oral Health Rep 4, 70–78 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40496-017-0127-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40496-017-0127-1

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