[Calibration of examiners for dental caries epidemiologic studies].
The aim of this study was describe a training and calibration exercise for dental caries and to discuss the use of validity and reliability statistical tests. Eight dentists examined seventeen 12 year-old schoolchildren using World Health Organization (1997) criteria. Data analysis included calculation of the DMF-T index, the percent agreement, and the kappa scores on a tooth-by-tooth basis. Inter-examiner agreement was tested against a gold standard examiner. Scores for measures of agreement calculated on a tooth-by-tooth basis were lower than those calculated for the whole mouth. The training and calibration exercise is a crucial step in cross-sectional epidemiological surveys, and the kappa test calculated on a tooth-by-tooth basis is the appropriate measurement to test agreement between examiners for dental caries.
Departamento de Saúde Pública, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, 88049-970, Brasil. peresp@repensul.ufsc.br
M A
MA
Peres
J
J
Traebert
W
W
Marcenes
D002138:Calibration; D002648:Child; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results