Non-Cochrane · aetiology · PM42304364
Association between oral frailty and physical frailty among older adults: a meta-analysis.
Li Qiwen, Zhu Tiantian, Jiang Han, et al. · BMC oral health · 2026 · PubMed · doi:10.1186/s12903-026-08899-y
Findings
Population Adults aged 60 years or older
19 findings
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Age: ≥75 | OR 2.05 [1.71, 2.46] GRADE not reported 3 studies · 4609 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Oral frailty assessment (OF criteria): Other criteria | OR 2.00 [1.28, 3.11] GRADE not reported 5 studies · 6358 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Territory: Not Japan | OR 3.58 [1.11, 11.52] GRADE not reported 6 studies · 3869 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Physical frailty assessment (PF criteria): Frailty Screening Index | OR 2.34 [1.96, 2.79] GRADE not reported 4 studies · 24749 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Physical frailty assessment (PF criteria): Other criteria | OR 5.69 [1.15, 28.02] GRADE not reported 4 studies · 3086 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Age: ≥60 | OR 6.22 [0.60, 64.06] GRADE not reported 3 studies · 1858 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Sensitivity: excluding Ma et al. 2025 (outlier) | OR 2.46 [2.05, 2.94] GRADE not reported 13 studies |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations | OR 3.11 [1.89, 5.10] GRADE not reported 14 studies |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Population type: Special population | OR 9.63 [1.33, 69.61] GRADE not reported 3 studies · 1340 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Study type: Longitudinal study | OR 2.53 [1.71, 3.74] GRADE not reported 3 studies · 22976 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Oral frailty assessment (OF criteria): OFI-6 | OR 2.39 [1.62, 3.53] GRADE not reported 3 studies · 5114 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Oral frailty assessment (OF criteria): OFI-8 | OR 5.09 [1.83, 14.16] GRADE not reported 6 studies · 22804 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Multivariate meta-regression: interaction of population type and age | meta-regression coefficient (beta) -1.55 [-2.23, -0.87] GRADE not reported Studies not reported |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Study type: Cross-sectional | OR 3.33 [1.76, 6.31] GRADE not reported 11 studies · 11300 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Age: ≥65 | OR 2.57 [2.09, 3.15] GRADE not reported 8 studies · 27809 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Physical frailty assessment (PF criteria): J-CHS | OR 2.77 [1.72, 4.46] GRADE not reported 3 studies · 4911 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Territory: Japan | OR 2.56 [2.08, 3.15] GRADE not reported 8 studies · 30407 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Physical frailty assessment (PF criteria): Fried's phenotype criteria | OR 1.76 [1.05, 2.97] GRADE not reported 3 studies · 1530 participants |
| Oral frailty (exposure) | No oral frailty (non-oral frailty or oral robust) | Physical frailty Cross-sectional association (baseline data) · Community and special (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline) older populations · Subgroup by Population type: Community population | OR 2.42 [1.99, 2.94] GRADE not reported 11 studies · 32936 participants |
Included primary studies 15
Open in Studies| Study | Year | Also included by | Outcomes it informs here | Trial data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lin 2022 Physical Frailty and Oral Frailty Associated with Late-Life Depression in Community-Dwelling Older Adults. PMID:35330459 | 2022 | 4 other reviews | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Komatsu 2021 Association between Physical Frailty Subdomains and Oral Frailty in Community-Dwelling Older Adults. PMID:33809322 | 2021 | 2 other reviews | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Hironaka 2020 Association between oral, social, and physical frailty in community-dwelling older adults DOI:10.1016/j.archger.2020.104105 | 2020 | 1 other review | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Ishii 2022 Influence of oral health on frailty in patients with type 2 diabetes aged 75 years or older DOI:10.1186/s12877-022-02841-x | 2022 | 1 other review | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Ma 2025 Development and validation of risk-predicting model for oral frailty in older adults patients with stroke DOI:10.1186/s12903-025-05428-1 | 2025 | 1 other review | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Nakagawa 2024 Oral frailty, appetite and dietary variety in late‐stage older adults: A cross‐sectional study (the <scp>STudy</scp> of <scp>lAte</scp>… DOI:10.1111/ggi.14892 | 2024 | 1 other review | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Tanaka 2023 Oral frailty five‐item checklist to predict adverse health outcomes in community‐dwelling older adults: A Kashiwa cohort study DOI:10.1111/ggi.14634 | 2023 | 1 other review | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Wang 2024 Current situation and influencing factors of oral frailty for community-dwelling older adults in the northeastern border areas of China: A… DOI:10.1016/j.gerinurse.2024.08.029 | 2024 | 1 other review | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Fei 2024 Physical frailty intensifies the positive association of oral frailty with poor global cognitive function and executive function among… DOI:10.1186/s12877-024-05056-4 | 2024 | this review only | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Hiltunen 2021 Patients’ preferred place of death: patients are willing to consider their preferences, but someone has to ask them DOI:10.1093/ageing/afab176 | 2021 | this review only | not stated | not extracted yet |
| Hiltunen et al. 2021 Relationship between Fried’s frailty phenotype and oral frailty in long-term care residents DOI:10.1093/ageing/afab177 | 2021 | this review only | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Iwasaki 2024 Prevalence of oral frailty and its association with dietary variety, social engagement, and physical frailty: Results from the Oral… DOI:10.1111/ggi.14846 | 2024 | this review only | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Kuo 2022 Association between Oral Frailty and Physical Frailty among Rural Middle-Old Community-Dwelling People with Cognitive Decline in Taiwan: A… PMID:35270577 | 2022 | this review only | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Maeda 2024 Characteristics of drugs with oral frailty patients among community pharmacy visitors: a cross-sectional study DOI:10.1186/s12903-024-05299-y | 2024 | this review only | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
| Watanabe 2024 Oral frailty is associated with mortality independently of physical and psychological frailty among older adults DOI:10.1016/j.exger.2024.112446 | 2024 | this review only | Physical frailty | not extracted yet |
Overlap with other reviews
Reviews that include the same primary studies are not independent evidence. Shared counts match studies by PMID, DOI or NCT, and otherwise by author and year (a probable match). Only the non-Cochrane dental reviews have study lists, so overlap with Cochrane reviews is not counted yet.
Review question
| Element | Planned (methods) | Found (results) |
|---|---|---|
| Population | Older adults aged 60 years or older | Older adults aged 60 years or older; community (n=11) and special populations (stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline; n=3) |
| Intervention | Oral frailty | Oral frailty by OFI-6 (n=3), OFI-8 (n=6), OF-5 (n=2), self-defined criteria (n=3) |
| Comparison | No oral frailty | No oral frailty (non-OF; oral robust plus pre-oral frail in some studies) |
| Outcomes | Physical frailty | Physical frailty by Fried criteria (n=3), FSI (n=4), J-CHS (n=3), FRAIL (n=2), SOF index (n=2) |
| Study designs | Observational studies (cross-sectional, cohort, case-control); English only | Cross-sectional (n=11) and longitudinal baseline data (n=3); Japan (n=8), China (n=5), Finland (n=1) |
| Timing | Not specified | Not specified |