Department of Epidemiology & Health Promotion, College of Dentistry, New York University, New York 10010, USA.
Int J Oral Sci. 2009 Dec;1(4):189-95. doi: 10.4248/IJOS09077.
Cluster analysis was conducted on data from 5,169 United States (U.S.) Arizona children, age's 5-59-months with the goal of delineating patterns of caries in the primary dentition of pre-school children without a priori pattern definitions.
Cluster analyses were conducted using all data for children ages 0-4 years in aggregate: (1) for all subjects, and (2) for subjects without crowned restored teeth. Each of these two sets of analyses consisted of 8 differently specified cluster analyses as a validation procedure.
The caries patterns identified from the clustering analysis are: (1) smooth surfaces (other than the maxillary incisor), (2) maxillary incisor, (3) occlusal surfaces of first molars, and (4) pit and fissure surfaces of second molars.
The cluster analysis findings were consistent with results produced by multidimensional scaling. These cross-validated patterns may represent resulting disease conditions from different risks or the timing of various risk factor exposures. As such, the patterns may be useful case definitions for caries risk factor investigations in children under 60 months of age.
对美国亚利桑那州 5169 名 5-59 月龄儿童的数据进行聚类分析，目的是在没有先验模式定义的情况下，描述学龄前儿童乳牙龋齿的模式。
使用 0-4 岁儿童的所有数据进行聚类分析：(1) 对所有受试者，(2) 对没有冠修复牙的受试者。这两组分析中的每一组都由 8 种不同指定的聚类分析组成，作为验证程序。
聚类分析确定的龋齿模式为：(1) 光滑表面（上颌切牙除外），(2) 上颌切牙，(3) 第一磨牙的咬合面，(4) 第二磨牙的窝沟面。
聚类分析结果与多维尺度分析的结果一致。这些交叉验证的模式可能代表了不同风险或各种风险因素暴露时间导致的疾病状况。因此，这些模式可能是 60 个月以下儿童龋齿危险因素研究的有用病例定义。
