title: Estimation of caries experience by multiple imputation and direct standardization.
abstract: Valid estimates of caries experience are needed to monitor oral population health. Obtaining such estimates in practice is often complicated by nonresponse and missing data. The goal of this study was to estimate caries experiences in a population of children aged 5 and 11 years, in the presence of nonresponse and missing data. Four estimation methods are compared. Each method makes implicit assumptions about the processes that caused the nonresponse and the missing data. Three of the four methods are based on unrealistic assumptions about the missing data and underestimate caries experience. Under the missing at random assumption, multiple imputation in combination with direct standardization corrects for the deficiencies of current methodology. In the presence of missing data and nonresponse, we recommend a combination of multiple imputation and direct standardization to obtain correct estimates of caries experience.
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research TNO, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Schuller
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: van Buuren
mesh_terms: D015982:Bias; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004245:DMF Index; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology; D003729:Dental Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003793:Dental Restoration, Permanent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012923:Social Class; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014081:Tooth Extraction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016388:Tooth Loss / Q000453:epidemiology