Study on the chain mediating role of perceived social support and nutrition between oral frailty and physical frailty in rural elderly people

Objective: To explore the chain mediating effects of perceived social support and nutrition between oral frailty and physical frailty in rural elderly people. Methods: Using a cross-sectional study design, 628 rural elderly people in Bengbu City Anhui Province, were selected from July 2024 to March 2025 through convenience sampling method.Data were collected using standardized assessment toolsincluding the general demographic information questionnaire, oral frailty index-8(OFI-8), FRAIL scale, mini-nutritional assessment short form(MNA-SF), and perceived social support scale(PSSS).The Pearson correlation analysis and Process macro-procedure mediation effect test were performed using the SPSS software. Results: The detection rate of oral frailty was 60.2%, with a total score of (4.55±2.27) points.The detection rate of physical frailty was 14.8%, with a total score of (1.48±1.03) points, the total score of nutritional status was (12.00±2.29) points and the total score of perceived social support was (59.53±9.27) points.The results of the correlation analysis showed the oral frailty was significantly positivly correlated with physical frailty(r=0.299, P < 0.01), and negativly correlated with nutritional status(r=-0.201) and perceived social support(r=-0.084, P < 0.05).The perceived social support was positively correlated with nutritional status(r=0.161, P < 0.01), and negatively correlated with physical frailty(r=-0.216, P < 0.01), and the nutritional status was negatively correlated with physical frailty (r=-0.562, P < 0.01).The results of chain mediation model showed that the perceived social support indirectly alleviated the negative impact of oral frailty on physical frailty by improving nutritional status(effect value=0.055, 95%CI: 0.034-0.078), and this pathway accounted for 33.13% of total effect(Bootstrap test significant). Conclusions: The physical frailty of rural elderly people is jointly influenced by oral frailty, nutritional status and perceived social support.Among them, the perceived social support can indirectly alleviate the negative impact of oral frailty on physical frailty by improving nutritional status.