A. Gleerup et al., DISCRIMINANT-ANALYSIS IN TREATMENT EVALUATION OF ECTOPIC ERUPTION OF THE MAXILLARY FIRST PERMANENT MOLARS, European journal of orthodontics, 17(4), 1995, pp. 281-291
The value of an analytical routine which could be used in the evaluati
on of clinical studies was assessed. Stepwise discriminant analysis wi
th stepwise selection/elimination was used to reduce the amount of dat
a without losing information before further analyses with canonical di
scriminant analysis. The purpose of canonical discriminant analysis wa
s to reveal interactions between factors associated with the ectopic e
ruption of the first permanent molars. Two canonical discriminant func
tions were used to determine the accuracy of diagnosis and the effect
of treatment. This information consisted of variables which were the m
ost important (their ranks) and their single correlations (structure c
oefficients) to the function itself. This information was interpreted
clinically. The coefficients of the canonical discriminant functions c
an be used for classification purposes. The use of a scatterplot inste
ad of simple classification tables is suggested. The scatterplot was p
articularly informative on how well the procedure discriminated betwee
n groups. A table based on original data is included to allow the read
er to test the validity of the findings on cases of his/her own. This
multivariate strategy avoids spurious intercorrelations between two or
more variables analysed as multiple single factors that has a high ri
sk of erroneous conclusions.