Background: Identifying older adults with a high risk of falling and providing them with appropriate intervention are vital measures for preventing fall incidents. Scholars report that oral frailty, a decline in oral function, is related to physical function; thus, it bears a potential association with fall risks. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between fall incidents and the status of physical and oral frailty among a sample of residents in Osaka Prefecture.
Subjects and methods: This study targeted community-dwelling people aged 50 years and older who responded to an annual questionnaire survey using a health app for 2 consecutive years, namely, 2020 and 2021. This study analyzed responses from 7591 (62 ± 7 years) participants and determined the status of their oral frailty and comprehensive and physical frailty using the Kihon Checklist.
Results: In the 2020 and 2021 surveys, 17% and 19% of the participants exhibited oral frailty and experienced a fall in the previous year, respectively. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that oral frailty (adjusted odds ratio: 1.553) and physical frailty as well as low levels of awareness of frailty were significant explanatory variables of the occurrence of fall incidents during the subsequent year.
Conclusions: Future studies are required to elucidate the mechanisms by which oral frailty induces fall incidents.
Keywords: fall incidents; habitual exercise; health app; older health; oral frailty; primary healthcare; web-based survey.