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Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Background/aim: The Oral Frailty Index-8 (OFI-8) is a reliable screening for oral frailty. In our study, while presenting the Turkish reliability and validity study of the OFI-8, we also aimed to establish a cut-off value for oral frailty in Turkish population.

Materials and methods: Patients who presented to the outpatient clinic between January 2024 and January 2025 were evaluated. The test’s internal consistency and test–retest reliability were assessed. Divergent validity was evaluated using frailty scores, muscle strength, and nutritional status. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was generated to determine the optimal cut-off values for identifying frailty, malnutrition, and probable sarcopenia. Oral frailty status was then analyzed in relation to demographic characteristics, comorbidities, and geriatric syndromes. Regression analyses were performed to adjust for confounding factors.

Results: In 162 patients, internal consistency was quantified with a Cronbach’s α of 0.728, and test–retest reliability was quantified with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.961. Construct validity was supported by exploratory factor analysis, and divergent validity was confirmed through significant correlations with frailty, muscle strength, and nutritional status. A cut-off score of >5 on the OFI-8 was identified for predicting physical frailty, malnutrition, and probable sarcopenia: for frailty status, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.75 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.67–0.82; p < 0.001], sensitivity 0.85 and specificity 0.56; for probable sarcopenia, AUC was 0.68 (95% CI 0.60–0.77; p < 0.001), sensitivity 0.71 and specificity 0.52; and for nutritional status, AUC was 0.76 (95% CI 0.68–0.84; p < 0.001), sensitivity 0.86 and specificity 0.55. Independent of confounding factors, probable sarcopenia, physical frailty, polypharmacy, malnutrition, and falls remained significantly associated with oral frailty (OFI-8 score ≥5).

Conclusion: OFI-8 demonstrates good validity and reliability for detecting oral frailty in Turkish older adults, supporting early diagnosis and intervention to address better related conditions such as frailty, probable sarcopenia, and malnutrition.

Author ORCID Identifier

SÜLEYMAN EMRE KOÇYİĞİT: 0000-0003-2025-8263

BİLAL KATİPOĞLU: 0000-0002-7235-7979

YILMAZ ÖNAL: 0000-0001-6124-9203

KÜBRA BAHAR BAYKAN: 0009-0005-2112-471X

İLKNUR ŞEKER KAYA: 0009-0008-3689-7629

FATMA SENA DOST: 0000-0002-3748-8156

ÖZGE DOKUZLAR: 0000-0001-7079-9696

ESRA ATEŞ BULUT: 0000-0002-1124-9720

ALİ EKREM AYDIN: 0000-0003-0182-2850

DERYA KAYA: 0000-0002-5637-1308

AHMET TURAN IŞIK: 0000-0001-5867-6503

DOI

10.55730/1300-0144.6137

Keywords

frailty, malnutrition, Oral frailty, sarcopenia, validation study

First Page

48

Last Page

59

Publisher

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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