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PLOS One logoLink to PLOS One
. 2021 Jun 2;16(6):e0252625. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252625

Number of teeth and masticatory function are associated with sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus status among community-dwelling older adults: A Shimane CoHRE study

Takafumi Abe 1, Kazumichi Tominaga 1,2, Yuichi Ando 3, Yuta Toyama 1, Miwako Takeda 1, Masayuki Yamasaki 1,4, Kenta Okuyama 1,5, Tsuyoshi Hamano 1,6, Minoru Isomura 1,4, Toru Nabika 1,7, Shozo Yano 1,8,*
Editor: Clemens Fürnsinn9
PMCID: PMC8172058  PMID: 34077486

Abstract

Objectives

We aimed to examine the number of teeth and masticatory function as oral health indices and clarify their roles in the pathogenesis of sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus in community-dwelling older adults.

Subjects and methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted with 635 older adults in Ohnan, Shimane Prefecture, in rural Japan. The number of teeth and masticatory function (measured by the number of gummy jelly pieces collected after chewing) were evaluated by dental hygienists. Sarcopenia status was assessed using handgrip strength, skeletal muscle index, calf circumference, and a possible sarcopenia diagnosis based on the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019. Diabetes mellitus status was defined as a hemoglobin A1c level ≥6.5% or self-reported diabetes. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between oral health, sarcopenia, and diabetes mellitus after adjusting for confounders.

Results

After adjusting for all confounders, logistic regression analysis showed that the number of remaining teeth was negatively associated with a low level of handgrip strength (odds ratio [OR], 0.961; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.932–0.992) and possible sarcopenia (OR, 0.949; 95% CI, 0.907–0.992). Higher levels of masticatory function were also negatively associated with a low level of handgrip strength (OR, 0.965; 95% CI, 0.941–0.990) and possible sarcopenia (OR, 0.941; 95% CI, 0.904–0.979). Logistic regression analysis showed that the number of remaining teeth and a higher level of masticatory function were negatively associated with diabetes mellitus (OR, 0.978; 95% CI, 0.957–0.999; OR, 0.976; 95% CI, 0.960–0.992, respectively).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that improvement in oral health, including the maintenance of masticatory function and remaining teeth, may contribute to the prevention of sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus in older adults.

Introduction

Oral diseases are extremely prevalent, with more than 3.5 billion individuals affected worldwide [1]. Oral health status is a predictor of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality [2,3]. Recently, the concept of oral frailty was proposed based on an integrated oral health status. This includes the number of teeth (NT), chewing ability, articulatory oral motor skill, tongue pressure, and subjective difficulties in eating and swallowing [4]. Oral frailty has been reported to be a risk factor for physical frailty, sarcopenia, disability, and all-cause mortality in a longitudinal study [4]. Although oral health might affect the overall health of an individual, it has been neglected in the public health domain [5].

A recent review reported an association between oral health and sarcopenia [6]. Some studies have reported that the number of remaining teeth and/or objective masticatory performance is related to handgrip strength, skeletal muscle mass, or sarcopenia [4,711]. However, because there are few reports and inconsistent results regarding the association between oral health and sarcopenia, further studies are required to address this issue [6].

The potential and bidirectional association between periodontal disease and diabetes mellitus are well known [1214]. Periodontal disease worsens the oral environment, resulting in a decrease in the NT [15,16], which may affect the diabetic status if masticatory function (MF) is not maintained. A reduction in MF has been reported to be associated with diabetes mellitus [17]. To our knowledge, only one study has examined the association between objective MF and diabetes mellitus.

Recently, numerous bidirectional links between diabetes mellitus and sarcopenia among older adults have been reported. The existence of one condition may increase the risk of developing the other [18]. Therefore, we hypothesized that the maintenance of objective MF and remaining NT as an index of oral health may be related to sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus. The present study aimed to examine the association between oral health status, sarcopenia, and diabetes mellitus among community-dwelling older adults in Japan.

Materials and methods

Subjects

This cross-sectional study was part of the Shimane CoHRE study. The Shimane CoHRE study was conducted by Shimane University in collaboration with the annual health examination program that involved the population of Ohnan Town (419 km2, 10,374 people, 44.0% ≥65 years of age, data from the 2015 census) of the Shimane Prefecture in rural Japan between June and July 2017. Annual health examinations are available once a year for residents in this municipality who are between 40 and 74 years of age and are covered by the National Health Insurance. We provided information regarding this study at least once to potential participants through a document prior to conducting the health examinations. Overall, 852 adults participated in the health examinations. Written informed consent was obtained from 783 participants prior to their enrollment in this study. Seventy-six subjects did not participate in the oral health examination. Subjects with missing data for analyses (n = 72) were excluded; consequently, data from 635 participants were analyzed.

Ethics

Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Shimane University (#2888).

Data collection

A trained dental hygienist examined the intraoral status of the participants. During the examination, the examiners and participants remained in a seated position, and the number of remaining teeth (excluding third molars and missing teeth) was counted. Objective MF was assessed using a gummy jelly. The participants were instructed to chew the gummy jelly with maximal effort. After 15 s of chewing, the gummy jelly was collected and the number of pieces was counted [19,20].

Handgrip strength was measured in two attempts for each hand. Data were collected based on maximum grip strength. Skeletal muscle mass was measured with a body composition meter using bioimpedance methodology (MC-780A; Tanita Corporation, Tokyo, Japan). The skeletal muscle mass index was estimated based on the trunk and limb muscle mass divided by the square of the body height. Calf circumference was measured twice for both legs. The circumference was the largest in the standing position. Calf circumference was used as the average of the values for both calves. Participants were divided into two groups according to handgrip strength (low or high), skeletal muscle mass index (low or high), and calf circumference (low or high). Cutoff points by sex were used according to the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 consensus [21]. Possible sarcopenia (yes or no) was defined based on the assessment protocol [21].

Diabetes mellitus screening was carried out as part of the health examination by measuring serum hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels based on the recommendations of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare [22]. Trained nurses or public health nurses assessed the participants according to data obtained from face-to-face structured interviews. This included self-reported physician-diagnosed diabetes mellitus and information regarding the use of hypoglycemic agents. For the present analysis, diabetes mellitus status was defined as an HbA1c value ≥6.5% (NGSP) or self-reported diabetes mellitus [23].

Data on sex (male or female), age, smoking (yes or no; smokers refer to those who have smoked a total of over 100 cigarettes or have smoked over a period of 6 months and have been smoking over the past month), alcohol consumption (no, rarely, sometimes, or daily; assessed from the answer to the question “How often do you drink?”), and physical activity (yes or no; assessed from the answer to the question “In your daily life do you walk or perform any equivalent amount of physical activity for more than 1 hour a day?”) were obtained using a questionnaire. Height and weight were objectively assessed as part of the health examination. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated by dividing body weight by height squared (kg/m2).

Statistics

Frequency data are reported as numbers and percentages, and continuous data are presented as mean ± standard deviation. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for low levels of handgrip strength, skeletal muscle mass index, calf circumference, or possible sarcopenia with NT (continuous variable) or MF (continuous variable). For all analyses, independent variables were adjusted for sex, age, BMI, smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity in Model 1. Model 2 was additionally adjusted for diabetes mellitus. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate the OR and 95% CI for the diabetes mellitus outcome with NT (continuous variable) or MF (continuous variable). For all analyses, independent variables were adjusted for sex, age, BMI, smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity in Model 1, and additionally adjusted for possible sarcopenia in Model 2. Statistical analyses were performed using STATA 14.2/IC. All p-values for statistical tests were two-tailed, and values <0.05 were regarded as statistically significant.

Results

Demographic data of the studied population

Table 1 shows the characteristics of the 635 older adults in this study. In total, 42 (6.6%), 101 (15.9%), 269 (42.4%), and 20 (3.2%) participants had low handgrip strength, low skeletal muscle mass index, low calf circumference, and possible sarcopenia, respectively. The prevalence of diabetes was 17.6%.

Table 1. Participants’ characteristics.

Variables Total, N = 635
n % or SD
Sex
    Male, n (%) 280 44.1
    Female, n (%) 355 55.9
Age, mean ± SD 67.3 7.7
Body mass index (kg/m2), mean ± SD 22.8 3.2
Smoking
    No, n (%) 575 90.6
    Yes, n (%) 60 9.4
Alcohol consumption
    No, n (%) 325 51.2
    Sometimes, n (%) 129 20.3
    Daily, n (%) 181 28.5
Physical activity
    Yes, n (%) 309 48.7
    No, n (%) 326 51.3
Oral health status
Number of teetha, mean ± SD 21.8 9.4
Masticatory functionb, mean ± SD 26.0 13.6
Sarcopenia statusa
Handgrip strength (kg), mean ± SD 30.2 8.2
    Men: <28 kg, Women: <18 kg, n (%) 42 6.6
Skeletal muscle mass (kg/m2), mean ± SD 7.1 1.2
    Men: <7.0 kg/m2, Women: <5.7 kg/m2, n (%) 101 15.9
Calf circumference (cm), mean ± SD 34.0 3.0
    Men: <34 cm, Woman: <33 cm, n (%) 269 42.4
Possible sarcopenia: yes, n (%) 20 3.2
Diabetes mellitus status
HbA1c, ≥6.5% or self-reported diabetes mellitus, n (%) 112 17.6
HbA1c (%), mean ± SD 6.0 0.6
Self-reported diabetes mellitus
    No, n (%) 558 87.9
    Yes, n (%) 77 12.1

aSarcopenia status was categorized based on cutoff values per sex according to the study by Chen et al. [21].

HbA1c, hemoglobin A1c; SD, standard deviation.

Association between the loss of mastication and sarcopenia

Table 2 shows the association between NT and MF with respect to oral health and systemic sarcopenia status. In Model 2 (all adjusted model), NT was associated with low handgrip strength (OR = 0.961; 95% CI, 0.932–0.992) and possible sarcopenia (OR = 0.949; 95% CI, 0.907–0.992). However, no associations were found between NT and skeletal muscle mass index or calf circumference. In addition, MF was associated with low handgrip strength (OR = 0.965; 95% CI, 0.941–0.990) and possible sarcopenia (OR = 0.941; 95% CI, 0.904–0.979) in Model 2. No associations were found between MF and skeletal muscle mass index or calf circumference.

Table 2. Association between oral health status and sarcopenia status among community-dwelling Japanese adults (N = 635).

Oral health status Handgrip strengtha Skeletal muscle massa Calf circumferencea Possible sarcopeniab
OR (95% CI) OR (95% CI) OR (95% CI) OR (95% CI)
Number of teeth
Model 1 0.958 (0.929–0.988) 0.979 (0.951–1.008) 0.980 (0.957–1.002) 0.951 (0.910–0.994)
Model 2 0.961 (0.932–0.992) 0.980 (0.951–1.010) 0.980 (0.957–1.004) 0.949 (0.907–0.992)
Masticatory function
Model 1 0.963 (0.939–0.988) 0.981 (0.959–1.003) 0.985 (0.969–1.000) 0.942 (0.906–0.980)
Model 2 0.965 (0.941–0.990) 0.982 (0.960–1.004) 0.986 (0.970–1.001) 0.941 (0.904–0.979)

Each sarcopenia outcome was analyzed with oral health using the logistic regression after adjusting for sex, age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity in Model 1, or Model 1 plus diabetes mellitus status in Model 2. Values in boldface indicate significance (p <0.05).

OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval.

aHandgrip strength (men: <28 kg, women: <18 kg), skeletal muscle mass (men: <7.0 kg/m2, women: <5.7 kg/m2), and calf circumference (men: <34 cm, woman: <33 cm) were categorized based on cutoff values according to the study by Chen et al. [21].

bPossible sarcopenia was defined based on the assessment protocol according to the study by Chen et al. [21].

Association of the remaining teeth and mastication with diabetes

Table 3 shows the association between NT or MF with respect to oral health status and diabetes mellitus status. In Model 2 (all adjusted model), NT was associated with diabetes mellitus status (OR = 0.978; 95% CI, 0.957–0.999). MF was also associated with diabetes mellitus status (OR = 0.976; 95% CI, 0.976–0.992) in Model 2.

Table 3. Association between oral health status and diabetes mellitus status among community-dwelling Japanese adults (N = 635).

Oral health status HbA1c, ≥6.5% or self-reported DM
OR (95% CI)
Number of teeth
Model 1 0.978 (0.957–0.999)
Model 2 0.978 (0.957–0.999)
Masticatory function
Model 1 0.976 (0.960–0.992)
Model 2 0.976 (0.960–0.992)

Diabetes mellitus outcome was analyzed with oral health using the logistic regression after adjusting for sex, age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity in Model 1, or Model 1 plus possible sarcopenia in Model 2. Values in boldface indicate significance (p <0.05).

CI, confidence interval; DM, diabetes mellitus; HbA1c, hemoglobin A1c; OR, odds ratio.

Discussion

This study suggests that reduced NT or MF is associated with both sarcopenia and diabetes. We observed that a low level of MF was significantly associated with a decline in handgrip strength, possible sarcopenia, and higher odds of diabetes after adjusting for all confounders. The absence of remaining teeth was also associated with a decline in handgrip strength, possible sarcopenia, and higher odds of diabetes after adjusting for all confounders. Thus, our findings suggest that improvement in oral health, including the maintenance of MF and remaining teeth, may contribute to the prevention of sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus in older adults [24].

Our findings are consistent with the results of previous studies, suggesting that a lower MF is associated with reduced handgrip strength as an indicator of sarcopenia. In the present study, participants with a higher MF tended to have lower odds of declining skeletal muscle mass index and calf circumference. However, skeletal muscle mass index and calf circumference were not significantly associated with MF. Previous studies have shown that lower masticatory performance is associated with sarcopenia in older adults [4,11]. To the best of our knowledge, only one study has reported that handgrip strength is positively associated with masticatory performance measured with gummy jellies [7]. A recent review speculated that the mechanisms of the association between oral health and sarcopenia involve three pathways in which worsening of oral health causes poor dietary intake, neuromuscular system failure, and a loss of muscle strength caused by inflammation [6]. Meanwhile, we found associations between NT and a decline in handgrip strength, or possible sarcopenia, after adjusting for all confounders. However, higher levels of NT were shown to have lower odds of declining skeletal muscle mass index and calf circumference. A reduction in NT in older adults is treated by providing dentures with the intervention of a dentist. The use of dentures may mitigate the risk of losing the remaining teeth. This would result in an improvement in MF. Therefore, in this study, MF was measured as an integrated index of elements, including the remaining teeth and the use of dentures [24]. We did not compare MF with or without dentures. Therefore, it is important to examine the associations of MF with dentures in future studies [25].

MF and NT were significantly associated with diabetes mellitus, defined as HbA1c ≥6.5% or self-reported diabetes mellitus, respectively. Yamazaki et al. reported an association between diabetes and MF, which was evaluated using color-changing chewing gum [17]. Their study found that the highest masticatory performance was associated with lower odds of diabetes in Japanese men (OR = 0.53; 95% CI, 0.31–0.90). Our findings support the negative association between MF and diabetes, as reported by Yamazaki et al. [17]. A previous longitudinal study reported that the number of missing teeth (≥15 teeth) was positively associated with the occurrence of new-onset diabetes (hazard ratio = 1.21; 95% CI, 1.09–1.33) among 188,013 Korean adults [26]. This was consistent with our findings that individuals with an increasing number of remaining teeth tended to have lower odds of developing diabetes. We speculated that the association between oral health and diabetes could be explained as follows. In cases of reduced MF or NT, the increase in soft sugar-rich meals and the shortening of masticatory (meal) time increases postprandial blood glucose levels by insufficient secretion of insulin [2730]. Deterioration of the oral environment (the morbidity of periodontal disease) leads to decreased insulin sensitivity and impaired glucose tolerance. This results in the development of diabetes [31]. We demonstrated a significant association between MF and sarcopenia as well as diabetes mellitus. Loss of muscle mass, which is the tissue that stores glucose after absorption from the intestine, reduces glucose uptake into skeletal muscle, resulting in an increase in postprandial blood glucose [32,33]. Unhealthy habits such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and lack of physical activity as covariates might have affected the diabetic status independently, as well as the lack of teeth. Participants without teeth may have used dentures. Denture use might have improved MF and nutritional status, and may have affected their dietary selections [34,35]. Future studies are required to assess the use of dentures.

This study has several limitations. First, we used a cross-sectional design, which precludes the possibility of causal inference among oral health, sarcopenia, or diabetes. Due to the bidirectional relationship between diabetes mellitus and sarcopenia among older adults, the existence of one condition may increase the risk of developing the other [18]. Therefore, our study could not explain the causal relationships among oral health, sarcopenia, and diabetes mellitus. Second, the small sample size may have yielded a low statistical power. Third, our study could not control for the effects of the unmeasured factors. These include the effects of oral factors (e.g., periodontal disease, denture use, and brushing teeth) on the relationship between oral health and sarcopenia or diabetes [14,26,36]. Thus, future longitudinal studies are essential for investigating these associations.

In conclusion, among community-dwelling older adults in rural Japan, an improvement in oral health, including the maintenance of MF and remaining NT, may contribute to the prevention of systemic health status deterioration. This decline in health status is associated with sarcopenia and diabetes.

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate all members of the public health division of Ohnan Town who assisted with the community health examinations and the CoHRE study members for their skillful assistance.

Data Availability

This study protocol, including the consent of the subjects, was approved by the ethics committee of Shimane University. The consent of the subjects did not include a provision for the data to be shared publicly. Requests for the supporting data can be sent to the ethics committee of Shimane University at kenkyu@med.shimane-u.ac.jp.

Funding Statement

This study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (KAKENHI; grant numbers 18K11143, 19K11741 and 19H03996). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Decision Letter 0

Clemens Fürnsinn

31 Mar 2021

PONE-D-21-01645

Reduced masticatory function is associated with sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus status among community-dwelling elderlies: Shimane CoHRE study

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Yano,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Reviewer 1 comes up with some very unerring points. This includes that the paper shows an association between diabetes, and masticatory function, but it needs to be very clearly discussed and pointed out that this does not allow to assume any cause-consequence relationship. In this context, the reviewers´ request to analyse, whether mastictory function is associated with sarcopenia and diabetes independently, apperas crucial. With regard to group size, the authors may want to condider an anlysis based on segmentation into less, but larger groups.

Please submit your revised manuscript by May 15 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.

  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.

  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Clemens Fürnsinn, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements.

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

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We will update your Data Availability statement on your behalf to reflect the information you provide.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

**********

4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The study investigated the association between number of teeth/masticatory function and sarcopenia/diabetes. The issue is interesting enough, however, the several important problems should be raised.

1. Sarcopenia and DM have bidirectional association. However, the authors did not mention it in introduction and discussion.

2. Because of mutual association between sarcopenia and DM, these variables should be considered as so-founding factors. It should be investigated if number of teeth/masticatory function is associated with sarcopenia independently with DM or not.

3. The number of sarcopenic subjects was too small to be analyzed. The authors segmented 4 or 5 groups according to number of teeth/masticatory function. For example the number of subjects with low handgrip and NT-G3 or MF-Q3 was only 5. I do not think it is too small for this type of statistical analysis.

Reviewer #2: This is an interesting and significant contribution. The study is well designed and limitations are acknowledged. I recommend having the manuscript revised for language improvement to make it more accurate and engaging. I also recommend you to replace the term elderlies with older adults.

**********

6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PLoS One. 2021 Jun 2;16(6):e0252625. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252625.r002

Author response to Decision Letter 0


3 May 2021

Dr. Clemens Fürnsinn

Academic Editor, PLOS ONE

Dear Editor:

We wish to re-submit the manuscript titled “Number of teeth and masticatory function are associated with sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus status among community-dwelling older adults: a Shimane CoHRE study.” We thank you and the reviewers for your thoughtful suggestions and insights. The manuscript has benefited from these insightful suggestions. In addition, we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

The manuscript has been rechecked and the necessary changes have been made in accordance with the reviewers’ suggestions. The responses to all comments have been prepared and attached herewith. In accordance with comments from Reviewer 1, we have changed the statistical analysis methods. The number of teeth/masticatory functions was used as the continuous variable as the number of cases in each categorized group was small. In addition, in accordance with suggestions from Reviewer 2, we have replaced the term “elderly” with the term “older adults” throughout the manuscript including the title. All the revisions made as per your suggestions have been indicated with track changes in the manuscript.

Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Shozo Yano

Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine

Shimane University

Izumo City, Shimane

Japan.

Attachment

Submitted filename: Response_to_Reviewers0412.docx

Decision Letter 1

Clemens Fürnsinn

11 May 2021

PONE-D-21-01645R1

Number of teeth and masticatory function are associated with sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus status among community-dwelling older adults: a Shimane CoHRE study

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Yano,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

There seems to be one relevant point that still needs to be clarified: This is that reviewer 1 asks, why you have used different statistical procedures for different parameters. Please briefly explain this to the readers in the Methods section. If appropriately done, the paper should be acceptable.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jun 25 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.

  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.

  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Clemens Fürnsinn, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: No

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: I do not understand why the authors used Poisson regression analysis. The reasons why they used this method for handgrip and sarcopenia and logistic regression for SMI and calf cir are unclear. These should be clearly explained.

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PLoS One. 2021 Jun 2;16(6):e0252625. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252625.r004

Author response to Decision Letter 1


17 May 2021

Response to Reviewer 1

Reviewer #1

Comment 1

I do not understand why the authors used Poisson regression analysis. The reasons why they used this method for handgrip and sarcopenia and logistic regression for SMI and calf cir are unclear. These should be clearly explained.

Reply:

Thank you for your important suggestions. We noticed a mistake in selecting the statistical model based on your comments. A previous study showed that correction of the odds ratio may be desirable to interpret the magnitude of an association when the incidence of outcome is more than 10% and the odds ratio is more than 2.5 or less than 0.5 (Zhang J, Yu KF. JAMA. 1998. PMID: 9832001). In this case, another study suggested using Poisson regression with robust variance (Barros AJ, et al. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2003. PMID: 14567763). However, our study did not meet this criterion. Therefore, we reanalyzed the data using logistic regression and revised the methods, results including Table 2, and the abstract. The results and conclusions did not change after the correction.

<Revised> Page 7, lines 120–124 (Methods)

Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for low levels of handgrip strength, skeletal muscle mass index, calf circumference, or possible sarcopenia with NT (continuous variable) or MF (continuous variable). For all analyses, independent variables were adjusted for sex, age, BMI, smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity in Model 1. Model 2 was additionally adjusted for diabetes mellitus.

<Revised> Page 9, lines 140–146 (Results)

Table 2 shows the association between NT and MF with respect to oral health and systemic sarcopenia status. In Model 2 (all adjusted model), NT was associated with low handgrip strength (OR = 0.961; 95% CI, 0.932–0.992) and possible sarcopenia (OR = 0.949; 95% CI, 0.907–0.992). However, no associations were found between NT and skeletal muscle mass index or calf circumference. In addition, MF was associated with low handgrip strength (OR = 0.965; 95% CI, 0.941–0.990) and possible sarcopenia (OR = 0.941; 95% CI, 0.904–0.979) in Model 2. No associations were found between MF and skeletal muscle mass index or calf circumference.

Decision Letter 2

Clemens Fürnsinn

19 May 2021

Number of teeth and masticatory function are associated with sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus status among community-dwelling older adults: a Shimane CoHRE study

PONE-D-21-01645R2

Dear Dr. Yano,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Clemens Fürnsinn, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Acceptance letter

Clemens Fürnsinn

24 May 2021

PONE-D-21-01645R2

Number of teeth and masticatory function are associated with sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus status among community-dwelling older adults: a Shimane CoHRE study

Dear Dr. Yano:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Prof. Dr. Clemens Fürnsinn

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Associated Data

    This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

    Supplementary Materials

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Response_to_Reviewers0412.docx

    Data Availability Statement

    This study protocol, including the consent of the subjects, was approved by the ethics committee of Shimane University. The consent of the subjects did not include a provision for the data to be shared publicly. Requests for the supporting data can be sent to the ethics committee of Shimane University at kenkyu@med.shimane-u.ac.jp.


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