MEASUREMENT OF PATIENT-DERIVED UTILITY VALUES FOR PERIODONTAL HEALTH USING A MULTIATTRIBUTE SCALE

Periodontal health slates are difficult to quantify and no formal scal e quantifying patients' utilities for periodontal health states exits. Multi-attribute utility (MAU) techniques were used to develop such a scale. The MAU scale may be used to quantify patients' assessment of t heir current periodontal health and that of possible treatment outcome s. Such data, combined with probability values in formal decision anal ysis techniques would result in improved rationality of treatment plan ning for periodontal disease. 20 patients attending for routine underg raduate care were interviewed. Data from these interviews were sorted into groups of common interest (domains). Intra-domain health statemen ts were complied from the interview content. 21 patients ranked the in tra-domain statements on a scale of 0-100. This same group of patients also performed an inter-domain weighting. Mean results showed that pa tients were 2x as concerned with how they felt and with the prognosis of possible outcomes, than with how they looked and what facts they kn ew about their oral health. However, the real value of utilities resea rch lies in application of individual results to treatment planning, a s there is a wide range of opinion regarding outcome health states.