ASSESSING RISK FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD CARIES

尽管许多研究都对儿童早期龋齿(ECC)进行了研究，但种族/民族差异背后的病因仍不清楚。近二十年来，研究人员一直试图开发敏感和特定的龋齿风险评估工具来识别高危个体，但收效甚微。这项研究将利用全州和当地的横截面数据来源来开发、测试和改进ECC风险关联模型，该模型将使用计算密集型统计数据挖掘方法，如人工神经网络，多因素和多水平地研究各种个人家庭和社区特征，包括人口统计学、社会经济学、文化适应、健康信念和行为、获得护理和生理。目的是：利用1993-2004年加州口腔健康需求评估中的个人和家庭水平的数据，并辅之以社区水平的数据，建立ECC风险关联模型；测试和完善上述ECC风险关联模型，并使用个人、家庭和社区水平的数据，测试和改进最终的ECC风险关联模型作为风险预测模型，并与旧金山氟化物清漆纵向试验的对照组进行比较。将开发用于非牙科环境的风险评估模型和特定种族/民族的模型。这项研究与已经资助的三项研究以及其他项目和拟建中心的核心相结合。该项目将为圣伊西德罗预研究、旧金山焦点小组和Kaiser Permanente医疗服务研究提供与ECC相关因素的投入，并提供可利用其研究数据进行测试和改进的风险评估模型。这是第一次用数据挖掘技术同时检查与幼儿保育相关的个人、家庭和社区层面的特征的研究。

Although many studies have examined Early Childhood Caries (ECC), the etiology behind demonstrated racial/ethnic differences remain unknown. For almost two decades, researchers have tried to develop sensitive and specific caries risk assessment tools to identify at-risk individuals, but with limited success. This study will utilize statewide and local cross-sectional data sources to develop, test and refine an ECC risk association model, which will multifactorial and multilevel approach looking at various individual family and community characteristics, including demographics, socioeconomics, acculturation, health beliefs and behaviors, access to care, and physiology, using computationally intensive statistical data mining methods such as artificial neural networks. Aims are: to develop an ECC risk association model with individual- and family-level data from the 1993-4 statewide California Oral Health Needs Assessment supplemented with neighborhood-level data; to test and refine the above ECC risk association model and to test and refine th final ECC risk association model as a risk prediction model with the control group from a longitudinal fluoride varnish trial in San Francisco using individual, family, and neighborhood-level data. Risk assessment models to be used in non-dental settings and race/ethnicity specific models will be developed. This study interfaces with three already funded studies, as well as the other projects and the cores of the proposed center. The project will provide input to the San Ysidro intervention study, the San Francisco focus group, and the Kaiser Permanente health services research study about factors associated with ECC and provide risk assessment models that can be tested and refined with their study data. This is the first study to simultaneously examine individual-, family- and community-level characteristics related to ECC with data mining techniques.