Variation in caries and treatment experience in 35-44-year-old Lithuanians

Data summarising caries levels differ between countries and often conceal l arge variations. These differences may reflect variations at individual, gr oup, social and other levels. Caries and treatment experience differences a re found to be significantly related to a variety of clinical and non-clini cal factors. Variation in caries within Lithuanian children has been report ed and related to background-, behavior-, dental care- and other factors. V ariation in general or related to any factors in adult Lithuanian populatio n has not been studied. The aim of the present study was to estimate variat ion in caries and treatment experience and relate them to biological-, psyc hosocial-, health-related, behavioral- and dental care related aspects. The existing knowledge from other oral health studies was used to select the f actors found of importance in relation to variations in caries scores. The study consisted of clinical and self-reported data collected from a stratif ied random sample of 382 individuals (attendance rate 50%). Two statistical approaches, a bivariate and a multivariate, were applied. The two dependen t variables DMET and DS were tested with a set of independent variables. Th e bivariate analysis revealed significant associations for approximately on e half of all variables studied. For multivariate testing, a backward linea r multiple regression was used. Forty-one percent of the variation in DS wa s explained and 48% in DMET scores. Differences in scores were related to v arious factors in the two analyses. The strength and significance of a few relationships differed in both of the analyses. The multivariate testing re vealed some strong and significant associations with independent variables which were found to be weak and non-significant (P>0.05) when tested bivari ately and vice versa. Less than half of the variation could be explained in dental caries scores in 35-44-year-olds and not only dental care related f actors were important. In both of the analyses, the varying degrees of stre ngth (significance levels) give rise to a hypothesis that this incomplete e xplanation of the variation can be due to interrelated effects of different estimates.