title: The T-Health index: a composite indicator of dental health.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the most appropriate set of weights with which to calculate the number of sound-equivalent teeth (T-Health index) against perceived oral health, which was used as a proxy of oral health status. This study used data from 5,057 dentate subjects, > or = 30 yr of age, who ere participating in the Finnish Health 2000 Survey. Subjects provided information on socio-demographic characteristics, behaviours and perceived oral health, and had a clinical examination. The T-Health index was calculated by assigning different weights to missing, decayed, filled, and sound teeth. Thirty-six alternative sets of weights were evaluated. The most appropriate set of weights was judged by the strength of the adjusted association between the T-Health index and levels of perceived oral health in ordinal logistic regression models and by the invariance of this association according to the extent of restorative treatment (non-significant statistical interaction). Among the 36 sets of weights used to calculate the T-Health index, assigning twice the weight of a decayed tooth to a filled tooth whilst keeping the weight for a filled tooth < or = 0.20 provided the strongest association with levels of perceived oral health and did not vary according to the extent of restorative treatment.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Odontología Social, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Perú. e.bernabe@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bernabé
authors.forename: Anna L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Suominen-Taipale
authors.forename: Miira M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Vehkalahti
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nordblad
authors.forename: Aubrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sheiham
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004245:DMF Index; D003729:Dental Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology; D003793:Dental Restoration, Permanent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003817:Dentition; D019422:Dietary Sucrose / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009909:Oral Health; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D016388:Tooth Loss / Q000453:epidemiology; D014099:Toothbrushing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D019422:Dietary Sucrose