Department of Dental Hygiene, Hanyang Women’s University
Correspondence to Eun-Sun Lee, Department of Dental Hygiene, Hanyang Women’s University, 200 Salgoji-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul-si, 04763, Korea. Tel: +82-2-2290-2570, Fax: +82-2-2290-2579, E-mail: charity34@hanmail.net
Volume 26, Number 1, Pages 33–40, February 2026.
J Korean Soc Dent Hyg 2026;26(1):33–40. https://doi.org/10.13065/jksdh.2026.26.1.4
Received on November 03, 2025, Revised on December 03, 2025, Accepted on December 12, 2025, Published on February 28, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 Journal of Korean Society of Dental Hygiene.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0).
Objectives: This study aimed to examine the association between masticatory discomfort and subjective cognitive decline in Korean adults. Methods: We used data from the 2023 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A total of 5,340 adults aged 19 years or older were included in this study. Logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the risk of subjective cognitive decline according to masticatory discomfort after adjusting for sex, age, income, marital status, education, employment, drinking, depression, anxiety, and stress. Results: Participants with masticatory discomfort were approximately twice as likely to experience subjective cognitive decline as those without. After adjusting for sex, age, income, marital status, education, employment, drinking, depression, anxiety, and stress, participants with masticatory discomfort were approximately 1.3 times more likely to experience subjective cognitive decline. Conclusions: This study shows that masticatory discomfort is associated with subjective cognitive decline in Korean adults, suggesting that people with masticatory discomfort are at increased risk of cognitive decline.
Cognitive decline, Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Mastication, Oral health