Level of agreement of the most used indexes in epidemiological studies for periodontal disease.

摘要

Introduction The study of periodontal disease (PD) has shown inaccurate and heterogeneous results due to various factors, among them: most used methods to measure the illness, differences at the time of deciding the level in which it affects patients and the values from which a patient would be considered to suffer from PD. There are numerous periodontal indexes frequently used in epidemiological studies, each one with different criteria and measurement protocols. Objective To establish the agreement in PD prevalence value given by some periodontal indexes used. Material and method A descriptive cross-sectional observational study was conducted on 58 adult patients between 35-44 years old belonging to Lorenzo Arenas Primary Health Care Center in Concepcion during the year 2013. All examiners who participated in the study were calibrated. A full mouth registration exam was carried out, measuring 6 places per tooth, not including the third molars, in order to measure the clinical attachment loss, probing depth, and bleeding on probing. The results were analyzed using EPIDAT 3.0 statistical program. Results Very different PD prevalence values were obtained using the measured indicators, having a variation of up to 31 points in a percentage scale. The analysis of the agreement in periodontal indexes with the CDC/AAP indicator showed ICEP, CPI and CPITN scored a good kappa value. Conclusion Despite the great diversity of the indices with respect to their formulation, some correlation between them was observed.