Systematic review and meta-analysis of risk factors for oral frailty.
Dajin Li, Min You, Yan Rong et al.
✦ AI-curated · Sources linked
In 30 seconds
This systematic review and meta-analysis examined factors associated with oral frailty across 14 studies involving 12,297 participants, of whom 4,540 had oral frailty. Forty candidate factors were identified, but only 10 were reported often enough for meta-analysis. Nine—including age, gender, smoking, denture use, xerostomia, low oral health awareness, malnutrition, unbalanced diet, and physical frailty—were significantly associated with oral frailty. The abstract does not report pooled effect estimates, so the magnitude of these associations cannot be assessed from the reported results.
Key findings
- Fourteen studies included 12,297 participants; 4,540 presented with oral frailty.
- Of 10 factors meta-analysed, nine were significantly associated with oral frailty: age, gender, smoking, denture use, xerostomia, low oral health awareness, malnutrition, unbalanced diet, and physical frailty.
- Thirty of the 40 identified factors were not meta-analysed because they appeared in fewer than three studies.
Why it matters
The findings bring together evidence on factors associated with oral frailty and highlight potentially relevant domains for risk assessment, including oral health, nutrition, and physical frailty. Identifying these associations may support recognition of people who could be at risk, although the abstract provides no pooled effect sizes to indicate the strength of individual associations.
What to keep in mind
Only 10 of 40 identified factors were eligible for meta-analysis; the other 30 were reported in fewer than three studies. The abstract does not provide pooled effect estimates.