Community-dwelling elderly with chewing difficulties are more disabled, depressed and have lower quality of life scores

摘要

Since 2006, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor has recommended to screen swallowing and chewing abilities with the community-based comprehensive health-check examination to prevent disability of the elderly population. However, nationwide data of the actual condition of chewing disability in the community-dwelling elderly in Japan remains to be collected and be put in order. To address this important issue in a cross-sectional study in a community in Japan, we analyzed prevalence of elderly subjects with chewing difficulty associated with comprehensive geriatric assessment.