This application is a revision of 1 K01 AG00691-01 entitled """"""""Nutritional Status and Oral Health in Frail Older Adults."""""""" The candidate is a fellowship-trained geriatrician who wishes to commit herself to a research career in the area of nutrition and aging. She recently completed a research project in which she investigated the prevalence and correlates of nutritional insufficiency in homebound older adults. Consistent with previous studies, her results suggest a relationship between nutritional status and oral health in this population. Her goal is to examine further the contributions of oral health to nutrition in frail, older adults. In order to fully understand and investigate the influence off oral health on nutrition and to design appropriate oral health interventions for improving nutritional health, the candidate will need to improve her knowledge and skills in research methodology, nutrition, and oral health. Not having been formally trained in the nutrition or oral health sciences, the candidate proposed s career development plan that consists of coursework, training, and research experiences with a mentoring team of senior faculty and external consultants with expertise in these disciplines. The research program includes two pilot studies. The purpose of study 1 is to address the impact of chewing disability and oral pain on 1) nutritional intake and 2) body weight in 150 homebound older adults participating in the local Home and Community Based Services Program. Comprehensive in-home assessments will be conducted to examine several aspects of oral health, chewing function, nutritional intake and status, functional status, neuropsychological and medical status. The findings from study 1 will identify suitable subjects for study 2. The purpose of the second study is to examine the feasibility of targeted oral health intervention strategies in frail older adults who have poor nutritional and oral health. These two pilot studies will provide the preliminary data needed to perform a larger- scaled clinical intervention trial to improve nutrition among frail older adults.
| Locher, Julie L; Bronstein, Janet; Robinson, Caroline O et al. (2006) Ethical issues involving research conducted with homebound older adults. Gerontologist 46:160-4 |
| Ritchie, Christine S; Joshipura, Kaumudi; Hung, Hsin-Chia et al. (2002) Nutrition as a mediator in the relation between oral and systemic disease: associations between specific measures of adult oral health and nutrition outcomes. Crit Rev Oral Biol Med 13:291-300 |
| Ritchie, C S; Joshipura, K; Silliman, R A et al. (2000) Oral health problems and significant weight loss among community-dwelling older adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 55:M366-71 |
