Oral health determinants of incident malnutrition in community-dwelling older adults

Objective: Poor oral health might be a modifiable determinant of malnutrition in older age. We aimed to investigate the associations of multiple oral health characteristics with incident malnutrition in community-dwelling older adults. Methods: This exploratory analysis is based on prospective data from 893 participants, aged 55–80 years without malnutrition in 2005/06 from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. In 2007, 19 oral health characteristics from the domains teeth/dentures, oral hygiene, oral problems, and self-rated oral health were assessed by questionnaire. Incident malnutrition was defined as presence of low body mass index (<20 kg/m² in people <70 years,