2005 Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages 56-61
Objectives： Geriatric Soft Food (GSF) was developed for safe and quality ingestion for elderly people．The aim of the present study was to evaluate general/oral status and tongue pressure in a group of elderly people mainly taking GSF，and to examine the relationship within those evaluations and also their meal variation．
Subjects and Methods： Sixty-one residents (17 males and 44 females；over 65 years of age) in Himukaen Geriatric Health Services Facility took part in this study．The residents and their families were informed about the purpose and method of this study and gave their consent． Activities of daily living (ADL)，level of consciousness，Revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale (HDS-R)，number of remaining teeth，usage of removable prostheses，maximum voluntary tongue pressure (MVTP)，and type of daily meal (GSF only or GSF plus， regular food as a part of side dish)，were examined．
Results： For the type of daily meal，50 subjects ate GSF plus regular food (GSF＋R group)，while 11 ate only GSF (GSF group)．Between these groups，there were no statistical differences in age，gender distribution，level of consciousness，and oral status．The GSF＋R group tended to show better results in ADL，HDS-R and MVTP than the GSF group (p＜0.05)．There was a correlation between MVTP and HDS-R，which might be explained by low compliance with MVTP measurement in demented people．However，for subjects who showed an HDS-R value of 20 or over，MVTP was greater in the GSF＋R group (20.9 kPa) than the GSF group (6.1 kPa，p＜0.001)．
Conclusion： The clinical utility of maximum tongue pressure measurement for food selection was suggested．
