Use of an oral health index to detect frailty in an HIV positive population.

Use of an oral health index to detect frailty in an HIV positive population. In the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy HIV positive patients are living longer and healthier lives than ever before. Because of this, and because of cohort effects, Australian HIV populations are also ageing. Because of this ageing population there is increased interest in frailty measures, especially early ones which might indicate patients are at risk. Frailty is a clinical syndrome initially characterized in geriatric populations with a hallmark of decline in physiologic reserve and function and increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes. One of the measures used has been the development of an oral health assessment index to measure frailty propensity. This index will be applied to an HIV positive patient population and compared to other known measures of frailty for its predictive capacity. Could suit students with an interest in dentistry. References Development of the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index. Atchison KA, Dolan TA. J Dent Educ. 1990 Nov;54(11):680-7. AIDS. 2015 Aug 24;29(13):1633-41. doi: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000000753. A frailty index predicts survival and incident multimorbidity independent of markers of HIV disease severity. Guaraldi G1, Brothers TD, Zona S, Stentarelli C, Carli F, Malagoli A, Santoro A, Menozzi M, Mussi C, Mussini C, Kirkland S, Falutz J, Rockwood K.