Online Program

Challenges and Opportunities in Incorporating Spatial Information in Analyses of Periodontal Data

*Jason Scott Clague, University of California Los Angeles 
Thomas Belin, University of California Los Angeles 
Lauren Harrell, University of California Los Angeles 
Vivek Shetty, University of California Los Angeles 

Keywords: Spatial Statistics

Periodontal health is a key component of oral health, but data collection is burdensome for investigators and patients. Furthermore, protocols for collecting periodontal data vary and lead to challenges for combining data from multiple sources. This poster will review challenges in a context of a prospective study of 571 methamphetamine users whose periodontal exam data was meant to contrast with the population-based NHANES. Specifically, we will fit multiple conditional independence models, ranging from simple models that condition only on tooth type to more highly parameterized models that incorporate spatial correlation patterns.