OBJECTIVES: This cross-sectional study aims to explore the association between oral health status and cognitive function in Chinese elderly individuals.
METHODS: The survey participants were composed of elderly people aged���60 who were admitted to West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University from August 2022 to March 2024. They were divided into a cognitive impairment (CI) group and a healthy control (HC) group according to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score. General information and oral health indicators of all elderly people were collected. Independent sample -test and chi-square test were used for inter-group comparison, and multiple linear regression model was applied for multivariate analysis of MoCA scores.
RESULTS: A total of 402 elderly people were included in the study, and the number of remaining teeth in the CI group was significantly lower than that in the HC group. The decayed, missing, filled teeth index, debris index-simplified, gingival index, probing depth (PD), and clinical attachment loss in the CI group were all significantly higher than those in the HC group. There was no difference in denture wearing between the two groups. The results of multiple linear regression showed that there was a correlation between the number of remaining teeth and PD and MoCA scores after correcting for confounding factors.
CONCLUSIONS: Elderly individuals with CI have more prominent oral health issues compared to those with normal cognitive function. There may be a bidirectional relationship between the number of remaining teeth, PD, and cognitive function in elderly people.
