[Pathogenesis of temporomandibular dysfunction. II. Statistical method].

The variables of the epidemiologic assessments concerned with the aetiology of the mandible joint disfunction were examined in the course of statistical analyses, in general, in their pairwise connections and possibly a multi-variable linear regression calculation was employed. In the course of the examination, for establishing the linear, empirically tested model of the aetiology of the mandible joint disfunction a new type statistical method, the LISREL (Linear Structural Relationship) method was employed. An advantage of this assessment consists in that not only observed variables may figure as the variables of the structural equation but also latent variables which cannot be observed but it is supposable that they are factors of the observed variables. This statistical method is described in closer details in the article in connection with the forming of the aetiological model.