The associations between functional and nutritional factors for oral opportunistic infections in a long-term hospital

AimThe aim of this study was to investigate the association between oral opportunistic infections and a recently adopted functional factor, the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), and a nutritional factor, the Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI), in institutionalized elderly patients.Patients and methodsFifty-three patients who were admitted to a long-term nursing hospital were included in this study. The oral opportunistic pathogens (OOPs) were gathered by scratching the dorsal surface of the tongue and then were cultivated. In each patient, the FIM and GNRI score, the method of nutrition, the number of remaining teeth, and whether or not dentures were worn was examined.ResultsOOPs were found in 64.2% of the patients, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the most commonly detected OOP (43.4%). The FIM and GNRI scores of the OOP-positive patients were significantly lower than those of the OOP-negative patients, and the rate of denture wearing was also significantly lower in the OOP-positive patients. Similar results were found in P. aeruginosa-positive patients. In cases of P. aeruginosa infection, the tube-fed patients were significantly more likely to be OOP-positive than the orally fed patients. From the multivariate logistic regression model only the GNRI significantly associated with P. aeruginosa positivity.ConclusionThe OOP-positive patients and P. aeruginosa-positive patients had significantly lower scores of the FIM and GNRI. But from the multivariate logistic regression model significant correlation was found between only P. aeruginosa positivity and lower scores of the GNRI.