Oral Health-Related Quality of Life in Brazilian Frail Elderly

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was assess the oral health-related quality of lifein elderly with different fragility levels. METHODS: This work was accomplished with patients frequently assisted at the Geriatrics Clinic of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP, Brazil). Oral exams were accomplished according to WHO criteria (1997) and data on self-perception oral health were collected using the GOHAI (Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index). The frail elderly were divided in three groups according to the fragility definition proposed by Fried et al., (2001). The Mann-Whitney and qui-square tests were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: 65 elderly with a mean age of 77.4 years (SD=8.1). 60% of the patients were edentulous and the DFMT index was 28.7 (SD=5.2). 72.7% of elderly were prefrail and 18.0% were frail. 66.5% were women. Women were more frail than men (p=0.016). The GOHAI in the population was 31.3 (SD=4.5). The group with frailty presented smaller values of GOHAI when compared with the prefrail (p=0.016). When the GOHAI dimensions were analyzed separately, functional limitation and psicossocial dimensions were worse in frail individuals (p <0.05), in the pain and discomfort dimension there was not difference among the groups (p>0.05). In the frail elderly group: 38.9% said that their oral condition always limits their meal (p=0.003), 27.8% always worry about problems in their mouth (p=0.01) and 38.9% said be never capable to swallow with comfort (p=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This data suggests that the individuals classified as frail had a worse self-perception oral health-related quality of life.

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