Changes in masticatory performance and the new onset of diabetes mellitus in older adults: a 5-year longitudinal study

Kazumichi Tominaga; Takafumi Abe; Yuichi Ando; Tsuyoshi Hamano; Minoru Isomura; Toru Nabika; Shozo Yano

doi:10.1007/s13340-022-00613-x

Changes in masticatory performance and the new onset of diabetes mellitus in older adults: a 5-year longitudinal study

Diabetol Int. 2022 Dec 17;14(2):165-171. doi: 10.1007/s13340-022-00613-x. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Kazumichi Tominaga^{1

2}, Takafumi Abe², Yuichi Ando³, Tsuyoshi Hamano^{2

4}, Minoru Isomura^{2

5}, Toru Nabika^{2

6}, Shozo Yano^{2

7}

Affiliations

¹ Tominaga Dental Office, Ochi District, Shimane Japan.
² Center for Community-Based Healthcare Research and Education (CoHRE), Head Office for Research and Academic Information, Shimane University, 225-8 Enya-Cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8501 Japan.
³ Department of Health Promotion, National Institute of Public Health, Wako, Saitama Japan.
⁴ Department of Sports Sociology and Health Sciences, Faculty of Sociology, Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto, Kyoto Japan.
⁵ Faculty of Human Sciences, Shimane University, Matsue, Shimane Japan.
⁶ Department of Functional Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Izumo, Shimane Japan.
⁷ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Izumo, Shimane Japan.

Abstract

Objective: Although masticatory performance is affected by age-related reduction in number of teeth (or treatment), the relationship between longitudinal changes in masticatory performance and diabetes mellitus is unknown. This longitudinal study investigated the association between changes in masticatory performance and new-onset diabetes mellitus among community-dwelling Japanese older adults.

Methods: The data of 214 older adults living in Ohnan Town, Shimane, Japan, who participated in two surveys conducted between 2012 and 2017 were analyzed. Diabetes mellitus was defined as a hemoglobin A1c level ≥ 6.5% or self-reported diabetes mellitus. The masticatory performance (measured by number of gummy jelly pieces collected after chewing) was evaluated by dental hygienists. Masticatory performance was categorized into two groups (high or low) based on the median in each survey; further, four groups (Group A: remained consistently high, Group B: changed from low to high, Group C: remained consistently low, Group D: changed from high to low) were used to determine longitudinal changes in masticatory performance. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association between changes in masticatory performance and new-onset diabetes mellitus.

Results: Overall, 10.3% of participants had diabetes mellitus at the follow-up survey. Multivariate analysis showed that Group D (odds ratio 8.69, 95% confidence interval 1.98-38.22) was positively associated with the development of diabetes mellitus compared with Group A after adjusting for sex, age, body mass index, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and eating speed.

Conclusions: Deteriorating masticatory performance for 5 years may cause diabetes mellitus among older adults.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus; Longitudinal study; Masticatory performance; Periodontal disease.

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