摘要：Purpose - The aim of this study was to use
probabilistic graphical models to determine dental
caries risk factors in three-year-old children. The
analysis was conducted on the basis of the
questionnaire data and resulted in building
probabilistic graphical models to investigate
dependencies among the features gathered in the
surveys on dental caries.
Materials and Methods - The data available in this
analysis came from dental examinations conducted
in children and from a questionnaire survey of their
parents or guardians. The data represented 255
children aged between 36 and 48 months. Selfadministered
questionnaires contained 34 questions
of socioeconomic and medical nature such as
nutritional habits, wealth, or the level of education.
The data included also the results of oral
examination by a dentist. We applied the Bayesian
network modeling to construct a model by learning
it from the collected data. The process of Bayesian
network model building was assisted by a dental
expert.
Results - The model allows to identify probabilistic
relationships among the variables and to indicate the
most significant risk factors of dental caries in threeyear-old
children. The Bayesian network model
analysis illustrates that cleaning teeth and falling
asleep with a bottle are the most significant risk
factors of dental caries development in three-yearold
children, whereas socioeconomic factors have
no significant impact on the condition of teeth.
Conclusions - Our analysis results suggest that
dietary and oral hygiene habits have the most
significant impact on the occurrence of dental caries
in three-year-olds.
关键词：dental caries; Bayesian network; learning from data; risk assessment
