The relationship between oral health and the development of malnutrition in older adults – secondary data analyses of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA)

• Applicant: Dr. Eva Kiesswetter
• Subject Area: Biogerontology and Geriatric Medicine ; Nutritional Sciences
• Term: from 2017 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 398462750

Malnutrition in older adults is a common problem leading to negative clinical outcomes and increased health care costs. As the population group of older adults is growing, malnutrition in older adults becomes an important public health issue. The origin of malnutrition is multifactorial and can be influenced by health-related, psychological or socio-economic factors. One potentially modifiable risk factor is the oral health status. Research has shown an association between oral factors and malnutrition. However, most of the studies were cross-sectional, investigated mainly single aspects of oral function, were mostly performed in institutional settings, and were often conducted in Asia and other emerging countries, limiting the transferability to the situation in Europe. Therefore, the aims of this project are (a) to investigate the relationship between different measures of oral health status and incident malnutrition after nine years in community-dwelling older adults and (b) to analyze the association between changes in oral health and nutritional status over the follow-up period. The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) is a population-based longitudinal trial that applied adequate sampling procedures making the sample representative for older adults living in the Netherlands. For this project the data of the LASA Lifestyle Study in 2007 (n=1,054) and the LASA wave of 2015/16 will be used as these investigations include comprehensive information on oral health status and nutritional status. To answer the research questions secondary data analyses will be conducted using multivariate statistical approaches.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Netherlands
• Host: Dr. Marjolein Visser