Abstract / Summary
The association between declining oral health and function and the development of frailty, disability, and mortality has been well documented. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the Korean oral frailty diagnostic criteria and screening questionnaire for identifying physical frailty, sarcopenia, and malnutrition. A total of 126 patients (18 males, mean age, 68.1 ± 9.5 years) with histories of falls and fractures were recruited. Participants were classified as “robust”, “pre-oral frail”, and “oral frail”, based on the Korean oral frailty diagnostic criteria, which comprises of six measures and a screening questionnaire. Physical frailty, sarcopenia, and malnutrition were diagnosed using the Fried frailty phenotype and Kihon checklist (KCL), Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia guidelines, and Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition, respectively. Self-reported questionnaires were administered to evaluate resilience, depression, anxiety, and social support. The prevalence of physical frailty and sarcopenia was significantly higher among participants with oral frailty. Participants with oral frailty exhibited increased levels of depression and lower social support levels. The oral frailty screening questionnaire demonstrated discriminative ability for identifying risk of oral frailty (AUC = 0.760, P < 0.001), physical frailty assessed by the Fried frailty phenotype (AUC = 0.863, P < 0.001) and KCL (AUC = 0.774, P < 0.001), malnutrition (AUC = 0.686, P = 0.008), and sarcopenia (AUC = 0.810, P = 0.038). The diagnostic accuracy of the oral frailty diagnostic criteria and screening questionnaire for identifying individuals with physical frailty, malnutrition, and sarcopenia was deemed acceptable. The Korean oral frailty screening questionnaire and diagnostic criteria appear to be useful tools for identifying risk of physical frailty, sarcopenia, and malnutrition in the older population.