Determination of utilization in a dental insurance plan

Thesis (M.Sc.D.)--Boston University. Henry M. Goldman School of Graduate Dentistry, 1990 (Public Health Dentistry)Bibliography: leaves 39-40.The objective of this study was to determine and compare the dental care utilization of 37,000 New England employees, insured by Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield and Metropolitan Life insurance companies under dual option, preferred Provider ( Closed) Plan and Open Plan. This investigation was carried out by a random selection of 5,000 records of insurees. Comprehensive statistical analysis was performed to evaluate dental services provided through both dental insurance plans. Dental services were broken down by the ADA Procedure Code classification and service mix statistically examined in relation to Plan type ( Open, Closed), claim administrator (Empire, MetLife) and eligibility type (Employee, Spouse and Dependent). This sample comprised of members (employees), their spouse and dependents who, overall, formed a group of 2064 (41.3%) males and 2936 (58.7%) females. Of the total 5000 dental claims filed 1929 (38.6%) were through the Open Plan and 3071 (61.4%) through the Closed Plan. Specifically, for each dental procedure claims were counted with either Plan type

Maxillary Arch Dimension Changes of 3-5 Years Old Filipino Children

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the dental arch dimensions in primary dentition of 3-5 years old Filipino children and determining the existence of sexual dimorphism.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, 60 Filipino preschool children aged 3-5 years old were selected from Manila city. Study casts were used for measurements of 3 arch dimensions: bicanine width, bimolar width, and arch length. The analyses were performed to compare values within age-groups and within gender-groups, besides reporting mean and standard deviations. The data were subjected to One-way ANOVA and Student t-test.Results: Significant differences were observed regarding dental arch dimensions among different ages and genders (p<0.05). Comparison between genders showed a statistically significant difference in bicanine width at the age of 4 (p=0.04), in bimolar width at age of 5 (p=0.006), and in arch length at age of 4 (p=0.03) and 5 (p=0.02). Differences within male group for different ages showed only arch length dimension was statistically significant (p=0.021). In females, however the comparison between age-groups also revealed a statistically significant difference in bicanine (p= 0.016) and bimolar widths (p=0.027) dimensions.Conclusion: The present study showed that dental arch dimensions, vary among different ages and genders of children. It also showed that a sexual dimorphism does exist between the gender groups

Methodology to determine dental insurance premium : Boston University's "Dental Health Plan" with analysis of utilization

Thesis (D.Sc.D.)--Boston University, Henry M. Goldman School of Graduate Dentistry, 1992 (Public Health Dentistry)Includes bibliography (leaves [35-38]Dental insurance is a fringe benefit provided by employers. It originally came into existence around 1920's. However, the last two decades is considered the years of the growth of dental insurance in society. This indicates dramatic increase of enrollment for such benefits and ultimately higher dental expenditure as well. In spite of popularity of dental insurance, there is still a debate about its function. The argument touches basically upon the issue of quality of dental service raised by all parties - patients, dentists, insurance carriers. This calls for more attention and involvement of government agencies who regulate insurance and pay for services. Today a variety of dental health plans are marketed by insurance carriers. Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) are the plans that have grown the most among others. Capitation is another new dental plan option which perhaps will absorb more market share in the future. "Dental Health Plan" is a benefit provided by Boston University, which is adopted from PPO type option. It offers employees premiums for "Individual" and "Family" participants

A novel approach for craniofacial symmetry evaluation: Using the midsagittal Reference line drawn from “Crista Gali” with NHP technique

Please cite this article as: Ordobazari M, Naqavi Al-Hosseini AA, Zafarmand H. A novel approach for craniofacial symmetry evaluation: Using the midsagittal Reference line drawn from “Crista Gali” with NHP technique. Novel Biomed 2013;1(2):48-53.Background and objective: The purpose of this study was the determination of midsagittal reference line (MSL) for craniofacial asymmetry assessment by drawing a line from Crista gali parallel to the true vertical line in PA cephalometry, using Natural Head Position (NHP) technique.Method and Materials: 60 Iranian subjects within the age range of 9-13 years old were selected for this prospective study. Patients referred for orthodontic treatment and ghad no supernumerary or missing teeth, no skeletal anomaly, or any history of orthodontic and jaw surgery with normal occlusion. Posteroanterior cephalometric radiographs (PA Ceph) were taken of all subjects with NHP technique. The midsagittal line was also traced parallel to the hanging chain from Crista gali. True horizontal line (THL) and true vertical line (TVL) were also traced from Crista gali (Cg). Using Cartesian system based upon Cg point (0~0), the craniofacial symmetry was assessed with linear, angular and proportional measurements in PA cephalogam, related to TVL and THL lines, for 10 bilateral (R&L) anatomical landmarks. The mean differences of the above measurements in left and right sides were analyzed by T- test.Results: The proportional ratios for all left and right measurements were not statistically significant. This was true for both vertical and horizontal distances. The significant level for MSL drawn from Cg as referred to ANS (0±0.255) and Me points (0.007±0.527) was 0.002 and 0.004, respectively.Conclusion: In posteroanterior cephalometry radiographs taken with NHP method, the MSL drawn from Crista gali is reproducible and reliable up to 96% of the times for facial symmetry diagnosis

Development and evaluating multimarker models for guiding treatment decisions

Financial support for ProTWIN trial was provided by The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), the Hague, the Netherlands (grant number 200310004). Parvin Tajik is supported by an AXA Research Fund.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma-2 P12A polymorphism and risk of acute myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke: A case-cohort study and meta-analyses

The alanine allele of P12A polymorphism in PPARG gene in a few studies has been associated with a reduced or increased risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Yet, the risk relation has not been confirmed, and data on ischemic stroke (IS) is scarce. We therefore investigated the role of this polymorphism on occurrence of AMI, coronary heart disease (CHD) and IS. We performed a case-cohort study in 15,236 initially healthy Dutch women and applied a Cox proportional hazards model to study the relation of the P12A polymorphism and AMI (n = 71), CHD (n = 211), and IS (n = 49) under different inheritance models. In addition, meta-analyses of published studies were performed. Under the dominant inheritance model, carriers of the alanine allele compared with those with the more common genotype were not at increased or decreased risk of CHD (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.82; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.58 to 1.17) and of IS (HR = 1.03; 95% CI, 0.14 to 7.74). In addition no relations were found under the recessive and additive models. Our meta-analyses corroborated these findings by showing no significant association. For AMI we found a borderline significant association under dominant (HR = 0.49; 95% CI, 0.26 to 0.94), and additive (HR = 0.51; 95% CI, 0.26 to 1.00) models which could be due to chance, because of small cases in this subgroup. The meta-analysis did not show any association between the polymorphism and risk of AMI under the different genetic models. Our study in healthy Dutch women in combination with the meta-analyses of previous reports does not provide support for a role of P12A polymorphism in PPARG gene in MI and CHD risk. Also our study shows that the polymorphism has no association with IS ris

Influence of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension-Type Diet, Known Genetic Variants and Their Interplay on Blood Pressure in Early Childhood ABCD Study

There is limited evidence on association between adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH diet) and a lower blood pressure (BP) in children. In a population-based cohort study, among 1068 Dutch children aged 5 to 7, we evaluated the association between a DASH-type diet, 29 known genetic variants incorporated in a genetic risk score, and their interaction on BP. We calculated DASH score based on the food intake data measured through a validated 71-item food frequency questionnaire. In our sample, DASH score ranged from 9 (low adherence to the DASH diet) to 33 (median=21), and genetic score ranged from 18 (low genetic risk on high BP) to 41 (median=29). After adjustment for covariates, each 10 unit increase in DASH score was associated with a lower systolic BP of 0.7 mm Hg (P=0.033). DASH score was negatively associated with hypertension (odds ratio=0.96 [0.92-0.99], P=0.044). Similarly, each SD increment in genetic score was associated with 0.5 mm Hg higher diastolic BP (P=0.002). We found a positive interaction between low DASH score and high genetic score on diastolic BP adjusted for BP risk factors (β=1.52, Pinteraction=0.019 in additive scale and β=0.03, Pinteraction=0.021 in multiplicative scale). Our findings show that adherence to the DASH-type diet, as well as a low (adult-derived) genetic risk profile for BP, is associated with lower BP in children and that the genetic basis of BP phenotypes at least partly overlaps between adults and children. In addition, we found evidence of a gene-diet interaction on BP in children

Ideal cardiovascular health among Ghanaian populations in three European countries and rural and urban Ghana: the RODAM study.

Cardiovascular health (CVH) is a construct defined by the American Heart Association (AHA) as part of its 2020 Impact Goal definition. CVH has, until now, not been evaluated in Sub-Saharan African populations. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in the prevalence of ideal CVH and its constituent metrics among Ghanaians living in rural and urban Ghana and Ghanaian migrants living in three European countries. The AHA definition of CVH is based on 7 metrics: smoking, body mass index, diet, physical activity, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and fasting plasma glucose. These were evaluated among 3510 Ghanaian adults (aged 25-70 years) residing in rural and urban Ghana and three European cities (Amsterdam, London and Berlin) in the multi-centre RODAM study. Differences between groups were assessed using logistic regression with adjustments for gender, age, and education. Only 0.3% of all participants met all 7 metrics of the AHA's definition of ideal CVH. Compared to rural Ghana (25.7%), the proportions and adjusted odds ratio (OR) of individuals who had 6-7 CVH metrics in the ideal category were substantially lower in urban Ghana, (7.5%; OR 0.204, 95% CI 0.15-0.29), Amsterdam (4.4%; 0.13, 0.08-0.19), Berlin (2.7%; 0.06, 0.03-0.11), and London (1.7%; 0.04, 0.02-0.09), respectively. The proportion of ideal CVH for the various metrics ranged from 96% for all sites in the smoking metric to below 6% in the diet metric. The proportion of ideal CVH is extremely low in Ghanaians, especially among those living in urban Ghana and Ghanaian migrants in Europe

An epigenome-wide association study in whole blood of measures of adiposity among Ghanaians: the RODAM study.

BACKGROUND: Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) have identified DNA methylation loci involved in adiposity. However, EWAS on adiposity in sub-Saharan Africans are lacking despite the high burden of adiposity among African populations. We undertook an EWAS for anthropometric indices of adiposity among Ghanaians aiming to identify DNA methylation loci that are significantly associated. METHODS: The Illumina 450k DNA methylation array was used to profile DNA methylation in whole blood samples of 547 Ghanaians from the Research on Obesity and Diabetes among African Migrants (RODAM) study. Differentially methylated positions (DMPs) and differentially methylation regions (DMRs) were identified for BMI and obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2), as well as for waist circumference (WC) and abdominal obesity (WC ≥ 102 cm in men, ≥88 cm in women). All analyses were adjusted for age, sex, blood cell distribution estimates, technical covariates, recruitment site and population stratification. We also did a replication study of previously reported EWAS loci for anthropometric indices in other populations. RESULTS: We identified 18 DMPs for BMI and 23 for WC. For obesity and abdominal obesity, we identified three and one DMP, respectively. Fourteen DMPs overlapped between BMI and WC. DMP cg00574958 annotated to gene CPT1A was the only DMP associated with all outcomes analysed, attributing to 6.1 and 5.6% of variance in obesity and abdominal obesity, respectively. DMP cg07839457 (NLRC5) and cg20399616 (BCAT1) were significantly associated with BMI, obesity and with WC and had not been reported by previous EWAS on adiposity. CONCLUSIONS: This first EWAS for adiposity in Africans identified three epigenome-wide significant loci (CPT1A, NLRC5 and BCAT1) for both general adiposity and abdominal adiposity. The findings are a first step in understanding the role of DNA methylation in adiposity among sub-Saharan Africans. Studies on other sub-Saharan African populations as well as translational studies are needed to determine the role of these DNA methylation variants in the high burden of adiposity among sub-Saharan Africans