The Effect of Dietary Advice Aimed at Increasing Protein Intake on Oral Health and Oral Microbiota in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

oleh: Kristina S. Fluitman, Tim van den Broek, Ilse Reinders, Hanneke A. H. Wijnhoven, Max Nieuwdorp, Marjolein Visser, Richard G. IJzerman, Bart J. F. Keijser

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-10-01

Deskripsi

Nutrition and oral health are closely related, especially in older adults in whom poor nutrition may lead to oral microbial perturbations, exacerbating poor oral health. In a 6-month randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the effects on oral microbiota and on oral health of dietary advice aimed at increasing protein intake to ≥1.2 g/kg adjusted body weight/day (g/kg aBW/d) in community-dwelling older adults with low habitual protein intake (<1.0 g/kg aBW/d). Food intake was measured via 24 h dietary recalls, oral health was measured via questionnaires, and oral microbial composition was assessed via the 16S rRNA sequencing of tongue swabs. Mean baseline protein intake was 0.8 g/kg aBW/day in both groups. In the high protein group (<i>n</i> = 47), participants increased their protein intake to mean 1.2 g/kg aBW/day at the 6-month follow-up. Protein intake in the control group (<i>n</i> = 43) remained at 0.9 g/kg a BW/day. The intervention did not affect self-reported oral health. While it caused moderate shifts in oral microbiota alpha- and beta-diversity measures, abundances of individual bacterial taxa were not affected. In conclusion, our intervention did not affect self-reported oral health within a period of 6 months, nor did it substantially affect the tongue microbiota composition.