Comparison of four composite deprivation indices and two census variables in predicting dental caries in 12-year-old children in Wales

Autor: M Z, Morgan, E T, Treasure
Rok vydání: 2001
Předmět:
Zdroj: Community dental health. 18(2)
ISSN: 0265-539X
Popis: To compare the explanatory power of four composite indices of social economic status in their ability to predict dental caries experience.A secondary analysis of Welsh BASCD survey data using ward aggregated dental data, census variables and composite measures of deprivation.Examinations took place in schools.All 12-year-old children examined in the 1996/97 survey.The explanatory variables were Jarman index, Welsh Underprivileged Area score (WUPA), Carstairs and Townsend indices and the outcome measure was mean DMFT.The amount of the mean DMFT explained by the explanatory variables ranged from 62.9% with Welsh Underprivileged Area score (WUPA) in Bro Taf Health Authority to 4.2% with the Jarman index in Dyfed-Powys health authority. Of the constituent parts of the composite variables only the percentage with no car appeared in the 'top three' variables in all but one of six models.The composite indices explained very different amounts of the variation in mean DMFT between the different health authorities. It would be unwise to rely on any one as a method of predicting which sections of the population would be likely to have dental disease.
Databáze: OpenAIRE