Effect of oral function on nutritional improvement in nursing home residents

The objective of this study is to examine how occlusal status and swallowing function influence the nutritional improvement achieved by appropriate feeding assistance in the institutionalized elderly. We studied 38 residents (mean age 82.04 +/- 7.35 years) in a nursing home. Their nutritional status was evaluated by biochemical analysis, and the following results were obtained: 1) Compared to the levels before intervention, there was a significant increase (p<0.05) after 6 months in serum albumin (3.65 +/- 0.32 g/dl before and 3.77 +/- 0.33 g/dl after assistance), HDL cholesterol (49.39 +/- 13.39 mg/dl before and 53.44 +/- 11.27 mg/dl after assistance), and hemoglobin (11.39 +/- 1.76 g/dl before and 11.75 +/- 1.75 g/dl after assistance) respectively. 2) Among the edentulous elderly, the change in serum albumin was more significant in the subgroup of elderly wearing dentures (3.64 +/- 0.35 g/dl before and 3.92 +/- 0.40 g/dl after assistance). 3) The serum albumin was significantly lower (p<0.05) in the group of people with swallowing disorders before intervention than the group of people with normal swallowing function (those with swallowing disorder 3.48 +/- 0.31; those with normal swallowing function 3.75 +/- 0.29 g/dl), but it did not change significantly after intervention. These results suggested that occlusal support with dentures greatly influences the nutritional intake and appropriate feeding assistance could achieve nutritional improvements for elderly with reduced swallowing function.