The relationship between oral disease and cognitive impairment in the elderly in China

ZHAO Ya-qi; WU Mao-lin; WANG Rong; HAN Ying

doi:10.19749/j.cn.cjgd.1672-2973.2024.04.007

Abstract：Objective To analyze the relationship between oral diseases and cognitive impairment in our older adults through a cohort study.Methods This study was a retrospective cohort study.Data from the 2015 China Health and Aged Care Tracking Survey (CHARLS) were selected,and 1433 elderly people over 60 years old without cognitive impairment in 2015 were selected as observation objects by using the scores of the simple intelligent mental state Examination Scale,and the incidence of cognitive impairment in the elderly in 2018 was followed up.According to the detection of cognitive impairment,the elderly were divided into four groups:No oral disease,cognitive impairment;no oral disease,no cognitive impairment;oral disease,cognitive impairment;oral disease,cognitive impairment;oral disease,no cognitive impairment.The number of cases in each group was 343,598,249,and 243 in that order.The relationship between oral diseases and cognitive impairment was analyzed using chi-square test and mPoisson regression model.Results The prevalence of cognitive impairment among older adults with oral disease was 50.6％,the prevalence of cognitive impairment in older adults without oral disease was 36.5％.The difference was statistically significant (P<0.001).After controlling for confounding factors,the Cox proportional risk model found an association between having oral disease and cognitive impairment (HR=0.719,95％CI:0.611～0.847).Older men with oral disease (HR=0.814,95％CI:0.663～0.999) were more likely to have cognitive inparment symptoms (P<0.05) than women (HR=0.572,95％CI:0.431～0.785).Conclusion Oral diseases of the elderly in our country tend to lead to the occurrence of cognitive disorders.The manifestation of cognitive disorders is most impaired in the aspect of linguistic expression ability.Therefore,during the treatment of oral diseases,preventive measures should be taken to improve cognitive functions of the elderly.