An international collaboration of researchers has successfully adapted a Japanese oral health screening tool for use among English-speaking older adults in the United States, potentially enabling earlier detection of oral frailty—an age-related decline in oral and pharyngeal function associated with physical frailty, malnutrition, and increased mortality risk.
The study—published in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery—describes the rigorous cross-cultural adaptation of the Oral Frailty Index-8 (OFI-8), an eight-item patient-reported questionnaire originally developed in Japan to screen community-dwelling older adults for oral frailty risk.
The OFI-8 addresses eight key areas: difficulty eating hard foods, coughing when drinking liquids, denture use, dry mouth, reduced social outings, ability to chew hard foods, tooth brushing frequency, and dental visit frequency. A score of four or more points indicates a high risk of oral frailty and warrants further professional evaluation.
Previous research has shown that oral frailty, as measured by the original Japanese OFI-8, is associated with a 2.4-fold increased risk of physical frailty, 2.2-fold increased risk of sarcopenia, 2.3-fold increased risk of disability, and 2.2-fold increased risk of mortality.
The researchers note that while the adapted U.S.-English OFI-8 demonstrated strong comprehension and cultural appropriateness in this study, further validation research is needed to establish its reliability, validity, and appropriate cut-off scores for US populations.
“This international collaboration has launched a long-term relationship in geriatric dysphagia among institutions,” senior author Anaïs Rameau said.
