One prominent factor associated with malnutrition is poor appetite. In Japan, the number of older adults living alone has increased annually. Those living alone tended to eat alone, which may lead to poor appetite. This study aimed to investigate the association between eating alone and poor appetite using an index called the Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ). We surveyed 818 people aged 70 and over in Takashimadaira, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, Japan, in 2016. Comparisons were made between two groups, a poor appetite group (n = 295) and a good appetite group (n = 523), and results indicate that the poor appetite group had a higher rate of eating alone than the good appetite group (38.0% vs. 20. 1%: p < 0.001). Multivariable logistic regression (OR; 95%CI) was performed and poor appetite was significantly associated with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) score (1.707; 1.200–2.427), the number of medications (1.061; 1.007–1.118), JST score (0.894; 0.841–0.950), the indication of “very healthy” on a self-rated health scale (0.343; 0.152–0.774), and reports of eating alone (1.751; 1.130–2.712). Our results suggest that eating alone is associated with a poor appetite.

Recently, an occlusal force-measuring device with a capacitive-type pressure-mapping sensor (OFMD-CPS) was developed. We aimed to establish age- and sex-specific standard values for OFMD-CPS-measured occlusal force (OF) and to assess the concurrent validity of the OFMD against another OF measuring system with a pressure-sensitive sheet (Dental Prescale II). Using data from a population-based study, we calculated the OFMD-CPS-measured OF means and deciles in 5-year age groups for each sex. The OFMD-CPS-measured OF was validated against the Dental Prescale II-measured OF with Spearman correlation coefficients. Furthermore, we calculated the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) against the preexisting Dental Prescale II-measured OF cutoff value of 350 N. In total, 596 individuals (236 men and 360 women) with a mean (standard deviation (SD)) age of 73.7 (6.7) years were included in the analyses. The mean (SD) OFMD-CPS-measured OFs were 581.6 (284.6) N in men and 446.9 (209.9) N in women. There was a strong positive correlation (Spearman’s Rho = 0.73) between OFMD-CPS-measured and Dental Prescale II-measured OF. The diagnostic accuracy of the OFMD-CPS-measured OF for the Dental Prescale II-measured OF cutoff value was high (AUC = 0.88). In conclusion, we demonstrated standard values and concurrent validity of OFMD-CPS-measured OF in community-dwelling older adults.

A limited number of longitudinal studies have explored factors contributing to decreases in tongue pressure (TP). This longitudinal study aimed to clarify the factors affecting TP decline among community-dwelling older adults. We followed the Takashimadaira Study participants with a baseline TP ≥ 30 kPa for 2 years. A TP of <30 kPa at follow-up was defined as TP decline. We used Poisson regression with robust standard errors to explore the factors related to TP decline. The studied baseline variables were dental status, sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, appetite, medical conditions, physical function, cognitive status, and anthropometric and body composition characteristics. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) was used to adjust for selection bias. Overall, 357 individuals (159 men and 198 women) with a mean (standard deviation) age of 75.9 (4.1) years were included in the analyses. Of these, 59 study participants (16.5%) exhibited TP decline. After adjusting for baseline TP and applying IPW, poor appetite (incident rate ratio [95% confidence interval] = 1.58 [1.01–2.48]), low skeletal muscle mass index (1.66 [1.02–2.70]), and cognitive impairment (1.93 [1.12–3.33]) were associated with TP decline. In conclusion, we demonstrated that baseline appetite, body composition, and cognitive status could predict future TP decline among community-dwelling older adults.

Objectives: Oral frailty is associated with sarcopenia and underweight; however, its relationship with sarcopenic obesity remains unclear. This cross-sectional study investigated the associations between oral frailty and body mass index (BMI) categories (underweight/obesity), stratified by sarcopenia status. Methods: Data were obtained from dental checkups for 3829 older adults in Tottori, Japan (1489 men and 2340 women, mean age: 80.1 ± 4.3 years). Participants were divided into sarcopenia risk and non-sarcopenia groups by using the Yubi–Wakka test and then further subdivided by BMI into underweight, normal weight, or obese. Oral frailty was defined as meeting three or more of six oral frailty assessment criteria adapted from previous studies. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between oral frailty and each BMI category, with normal weight used as the reference category. Results: In the sarcopenia risk group, both obesity and underweight were significantly associated with oral frailty. The odds ratio (OR) for obesity was 1.727, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.092–2.732, and the OR for underweight was 1.443, with a 95% CI of 1.066–1.952. In contrast, no significant association between BMI category and oral frailty was observed in the non-sarcopenia group. Conclusions: Among late-stage older adults at risk of sarcopenia, oral frailty was associated with both obesity and underweight, with different contributing factors identified for each BMI category.