SynthesisInternational dental journal2026
Oral Health Determinants of Frailty in Older Adults: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.
Synthesis in International dental journal, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Functional Occlusal Support, Denture-Related Status and Hip Fracture Risk in Older Adults: A Large Claims-Based Cohort Study.Journal of oral rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Oral Structural and Functional Impairment in Relation to Depressive Outcomes in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Oral health is an important yet often overlooked determinant of healthy ageing, with growing evidence linking it to physical frailty in older adults. Findings from systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the associations between oral health indicators and physical frailty among older adults are evaluated and summarised. Systematic reviews, with or without meta-analyses, assessing oral health indicators (exposures) and physical frailty (outcomes) in adults with mean age ≥60 years were included. The methodologies of included reviews were appraised using the Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR-2) tool. The certainty of evidence associated with meta-analysis outcomes was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system. PubMed (MEDLINE), Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane Library, within the past 10 years, up to July 2025 were used. From the 654 records identified, 12 systematic reviews with 4 meta-analyses were included. All 12 reviews presented data from community-dwelling older adults, and 5 also included the institutionalised, hospitalised and home care populations. Findings suggested that physical frailty was significantly associated with (1) number of teeth, particularly ≤20 teeth and (2) impaired oral functions, including masticatory function assessed using various measures, tongue pressure, oral diadochokinesis and oral frailty. Evidence regarding the association between periodontal disease and physical frailty was insufficient and inconclusive. There is currently limited evidence on oral dryness, oral dysbiosis, oral pain and use/nonuse of denture. This umbrella review identified significant associations between poor oral health indicators and physical frailty, highlighting the importance of oral health in healthy ageing. Considerable heterogeneity in frailty definitions, oral health measures and study designs limits the ability to draw definitive conclusions or infer causality. Findings across systematic reviews are summarised, providing a comprehensive overview of associations between oral health and physical frailty. Research gaps and conflicting results were also identified to guide future studies.
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Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.