18 Improved Periodontal Disease Prevalence Estimates From Partial-Mouth Data Using Multiple Imputation

Oregon Convention Center 

In oral-health epidemiological studies, protocols using partial-mouth periodontal examination (PMPE), where pocket depth and tooth attachment are not assessed at all potential measurement sites, can reduce research costs and participant response burden. But without considering the PMPE structure, simple data summaries tend to underestimate the extent and severity of periodontal disease. Viewing the PMPE structure as inducing a missing-data problem, we outline methods for estimating periodontal disease prevalence using multiple imputation. Specifically, we apply Centers for Disease Control/ American Academy of Periodontology (CDC-AAP) periodontal-disease criteria to data from newly recruited methamphetamine users who received either partial or full-mouth periodontal examinations, making use of a sample with similar background characteristics from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) where participants all had full-mouth examinations. Estimates that did not account for PMPE data collection were biased downward, while the proposed strategy succeeded in mitigating bias in prevalence estimates, underscoring the utility of the multiple-imputation framework.

Dentistry

Oral health

Missing data

Epidemiology

Periodontitis

Public health 

Biometrics Section