title: A Two-Domain Self-Report Measure of Periodontal Disease Has Good Accuracy for Periodontitis Screening in Dental School Outpatients.
abstract: The assessment of periodontitis and treatment needs is primarily based on clinical and radiographic examinations. Albeit effective in predicting treatment needs, these examinations are costly, time-consuming, and impractical for assessing population-level needs. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate a two-domain self-report questionnaire for rapid periodontitis screening.
  
  
  
  Six hundred white adult individuals, dentate or partially dentate and seeking dental therapy at a university clinic, underwent oral examination utilizing the full-mouth Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPITN). To assess predictive value of self-reported periodontal measures (SRPMs) for periodontitis screening, four questions were formulated. Two questions aimed to assess "dentist-diagnosed periodontal disease" and two inquired about "self-assessed periodontitis." Multiple logistic regression models were used to construct receiver-operating characteristic curves, and predictor selection was performed via a forward stepwise selection process.
  
  
  
  Five hundred thirty-five volunteers with a mean age of 50.1 years elected to respond to SRPMs via telephone interview. After oral examination, 17.8% of participants were assessed as having CPITN = 4, representing compromised periodontal status. Sensitivity and specificity for correctly classifying compromised periodontal status ranged from 5.3% to 72.6%, and 87.8% to 99.5% for individual SRPMs. Sensitivity and specificity were increased when combining a measure of self-assessed periodontal disease and a measure of dentist-diagnosed disease as predictors. Addition of age and sex maximized sensitivity/specificity at 82.1%/82.2%. Diabetic status, smoking, and body mass index did not enhance the prediction.
  
  
  
  A two-domain self-report measure combining two self-report items with age and sex has good sensitivity and specificity for periodontitis screening in a white, university-based population. The proposed self-report measure can be valuable for periodontitis screening in resource-limited settings where gold standard clinical examination may not be pragmatic. Further validation studies are required to assess whether findings from this study are context-specific.
authors.affiliation: Division of Periodontology, Department of Developmental and Surgical Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
authors.forename: Georgios S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Chatzopoulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Lazaros
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tsalikis
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Antonios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Konstantinidis
authors.affiliation: Division of Periodontology, Department of Developmental and Surgical Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.|Department of Periodontics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Georgios A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Kotsakis
mesh_terms: D000068598:Data Accuracy; D005260:Female; D005882:Gingival Diseases; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients; D000076206:Patient Generated Health Data; D010510:Periodontal Diseases; D010512:Periodontal Index; D010518:Periodontitis; D012575:Schools, Dental
keywords: Diabetes mellitus; diagnosis; periodontitis; sensitivity and specificity; smoking