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A Markovian model for evaluating dental care programs
Author(s) -
Freed James R.,
Marcus Marvin,
Forsythe Alan B.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1979.tb01181.x
Subject(s) - medicine , markov process , dental care , markov model , markov chain , dentistry , statistics , mathematics
A Markov model is suggested as a means of evaluating dental care programs. Four mutually exclusive states of dental care are defined as Markovian states. These are episodic, initial, maintenance and nonuse. Records for all patients entering a university teaching clinic ( n = 578) over a 12‐month period were examined and classified in one of the states of care at entry into the clinic and at 1‐year intervals from the date of entry for 3 years. An analysis of the findings indicated that the Markov model did fit reasonably well and provided a good approximation of the empirical data.