Effects of oral functional training for nutritional improvement in Japanese older people requiring long‐term care

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of oral functional training and nutrient supplements to improve the nutrition of malnourished elderly people in a nursing home.Malnutrition is a frequent problem in the elderly requiring long-tem care; however, it is not clear whether oral functional training can be effective to improve nutrition.Fourteen subjects of 82 residents (mean age 85.7+or-6.2 years) in a nursing home, who had a serum albumin level of <or=3.8 g/dl and understood the purpose of this study, were randomly divided into two groups of seven: one group served as the supplement group (mean age 87.0+/- 4.9 years) to which a high-calorie and high-protein diet was provided, and the other as the oral training plus supplement group (mean age 84.6+/- 10.1 years) to which oral functional training was given by a dental hygienist once a week as well as the above diet. Nutritional status was evaluated using serum biochemical values as indices at 4 months after the start of the intervention.In the supplement group, serum albumin was 3.44+/- 0.36 g/dl at the start of the study (before intervention) and 3.24+/- 0.45 g/dl at 4 months after intervention. In the oral training plus supplement group, it was 3.56+/- 0.22 g/dl before intervention and significantly increased to 3.70+/- 0.33 g/dl after intervention (p<0.05: Wilcoxon signed-rank test).Nutritional supplements alone were not adequate, but with oral functional training to maintain and improve feeding function, nutritional improvement in the elderly could be observed.