Improving dental epidemiologic data collection with computers

A computerized dental data recording system (DDRS) was developed for the New England Elder Dental Study to improve data quality and increase field staff efficiency. The DDRS displays video screens similar to traditional paper forms to record data on coronal and root caries, dentate and denture status, subacute bacterial endocarditis screening, gingival bleeding, calculus, and periodontal attachment level. DDRS provides facilities for date and exam-component time tracking, on-line contextual comments, random record retrieval, editing, data backup, and data output in various data formats. This study compared the DDRS with a paper-form system for data entry accuracy. Dental caries and periodontal disease measurement data from 38 subjects were recorded on paper forms and independently entered using DDRS. The DDRS identified 150 illogical data errors, 39 inconsistent data errors, 7 invalid data and 34 miscellaneous data errors. Four technicians with field experience using both paper forms and DDRS reported time savings using DDRS in the field. DDRS has the potential for additional time savings by minimizing the time for data coding, cleaning, and management. Results demonstrate that DDRS could improve the quality of oral epidemiologic data by mandating strict adherence to protocols, preventing errors, and increasing field efficiency.