Relationship between oral health and frailty in community-dwelling elderly individuals in Brazil.

OBJECTIVES: To test the hypothesis that clinical oral health conditions are associated with frailty independent of socioeconomic and general health status.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional.

SETTING: Population-based cohort study of health, well-being, and aging.

PARTICIPANTS: One thousand three hundred seventy-four community-dwelling individuals representing 998,528 individuals aged 60 and older in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

MEASUREMENTS: Frailty was defined on the basis of five characteristics: weight loss, weakness, slowness, exhaustion, and low level of physical activity. Participants with three or more characteristics were classified as frail, with one or two as prefrail, and with zero as nonfrail. Oral health measures were number of teeth, use of dental prostheses, need for dental prostheses, presence of decayed teeth, clinical attachment loss of 4 mm or greater, and periodontal pocket of 4 mm or greater. Data on sociodemographic (age, sex, and schooling) and general health (number of self-reported chronic diseases and smoking status) data were assessed.

RESULTS: The prevalence of frailty was 8.5%, with 50.8% considered nonfrail. Elderly individuals with a need for dental prostheses were significantly more likely to be prefrail and frail. Participants with 20 or more teeth had a lower chance of being frail than edentulous individuals.

CONCLUSION: The need for dental prostheses was significantly associated with frailty, independent of socioeconomic and general health status.