RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of aging on masticatory muscle function according to changes in hardness of solid food. METHODS: Each of fifteen healthy elderly and young people were selected. Subjects were asked to consume cooked rice, which was processed using the guidelines of the Universal Design Foods concept for elderly people (Japan Care Food Conference 2012). The properties of each cooked rice were categorized as grade 1, 2, 3 and 4 (5×10³, 2×10⁴, 5×10⁴, and 5×10⁵ N/m²) respectively. Surface electromyography (sEMG) was used to measure masseter activity from food ingestion to swallowing of test foods. The raw data was normalized by the ratio of sEMG activity to maximal voluntary contraction and compared among subjects. The data was divided according to each sequence of mastication and then calculated within the parameters of EMG activities. RESULTS: Intraoral tongue pressure was significantly higher in the young than in the elderly (p<0.05). Maximal value of average amplitude of the sequence in whole mastication showed significant positive correlation with hardness of food in both young and elderly groups (p<0.05). In a comparisons between groups, the maximal value of average amplitude of the sequence in whole mastication and peak amplitude in whole mastication showed that mastication in the elderly requires a higher percentage of maximal muscle activity than in the young, even with soft foods (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: sEMG data of the masseter can provide valuable information to aid in the selection of foods according to hardness for the elderly. The results also support the necessity of specialized food preparation or products for the elderly.