VALIDITY OF A SELF-REPORTED PERIODONTAL-DISEASE MEASURE

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of a self-reported periodontal disease measure for use in the Health Pro fessionals Follow-up Study. Methods: Participating dentists responded to the question ''Have you had periodontal disease with bone loss?'' R adiographs obtained from 140 participants were evaluated for bone loss at 32 posterior sites and used as the standard. A site was positive i f it had bone loss 12 mm and/or complete loss of crestal lamina dura. To avoid falsely classifying participants as positive, three blinded e xaminers independently evaluated each participant's radiographs. An a priori decision rule was used to classify a participant positive if al l examiners independently assessed the same two or more sites positive . Results: The validity of the self-reported measure was good among de ntists, with positive and negative predictive values of 0.76 and 0.74, respectively. Among nondentists, the self-reported measure showed dis criminately power by confirming associations with known risk factors s uch as age and smoking. Conclusions: Dentists have a good perception o f their periodontal status, and there is reasonable consensus among de ntists regarding the threshold for defining periodontal disease. Self- reported measures might have potential for use in studies of other pop ulations with substantial cost reduction, and deserve further evaluati on.