CHICAGO--The American Academy of Periodontology has published a supplement in conjunction with the Journal of Periodontology, that is the result of a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, and the AAP to examine the feasibility of using alternative non-clinical measures for population-based surveillance of periodontal diseases.
Participants in this workgroup include representatives from the CDC and AAP, and other leading oral epidemiologists, statisticians, academicians and public health experts. The supplement titled "Development of Self-Reported Measures for Population-Based Surveillance of Periodontitis" appears in this month's issue.
The supplement reports on the current challenges with public health surveillance of periodontal diseases, and focuses on the potential use of self-report measures for population-based surveillance. The efforts of this workgroup include identifying and assessing the validity of self-report measures for surveillance of periodontal diseases in multiple datasets, and field testing of promising questions in a national survey.
Eleven papers are presented in this supplement, covering the following issues:
* Background and perspectives on surveillance of periodontal disease
* Case definitions for population-based surveillance of periodontal disease
* Analytical methods and assessments of self-report measures for surveillance in multiple datasets
* Field testing of promising self-report questions.
"The issue of periodontal surveillance has been important for both the AAP and the CDC," explained William Giannobile, DDS, Associate Editor of the JOP. "These papers provide valuable information about the current status of periodontal surveillance and future directions on the monitoring of periodontal disease. With the use of new salivary proteomic and genomic biomarkers of disease and rapid identification procedures to classify patients, the future is sure to be exciting."
"We are excited about this information," said Preston D. Miller, Jr, DDS, President of the AAP. "Epidemiologists, dental researchers, clinicians, and the public are eager to assess the prevalence of periodontal disease in the U.S. population. The papers in this supplement highlight the diversity and complexity of the issue of periodontal surveillance."
