Approved research

Relationship between oral health, dietary intake and nutritional status among middle- and older-aged adults in the UK

Lay summary

The overall aim is to investigate if oral health is associated with dietary intake and nutritional status in middle- and older-aged adults in the UK. Specifically, we aim 1) to examine if specific oral health conditions (loose teeth, pain, dentures etc.) impact dietary intake (types of foods consumed), 2) to examine if specific oral health conditions impact nutritional status (meeting UK dietary recommendations) and 3) to examine whether socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, socio-economic status) and health behaviours (smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity) modify the associations described above. Poor oral health and suboptimal nutrition are major public health problems in the UK. Oral health status can limit people?s ability to eat certain foods, which consequently may impact their nutritional status and risk of chronic disease. The Biobank cohort provides an opportunity to analyse the relationship between a range of oral health conditions and dietary/nutrient intakes in a representative sample of adults in the UK. The results from this study will contribute to the evidence supporting a paradigm shift in dental management, where dental services could help deliver holistic lifestyle change such as encouraging healthy eating habits. This will be a desk-based research project involving the statistical analysis of the oral health data (touchscreen questionnaire ? mouth/teeth and dental problems) and dietary/nutrient intake data (consumption frequency of a range of common food and drink items, and the 24hr dietary recall data) collected as part of the UK Biobank study. Analysis will be performed using SPSS (statistical software package). Multivariate linear regression and logistic regression methods will be used to examine the relationship between oral health conditions and dietary/nutritional status, adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics and health behaviours in the models. All participants who have dietary/nutrient intake data (consumption frequency of a range of common food and drink items, and the 24hr dietary recall data) as well as oral health data (touchscreen questionnaire ? mouth/teeth and dental problems) will be included in the analysis.