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False Positive Rates Encountered In The Detection Of Changes In Periodontal Attachment Level, John C. Gunsolley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis demonstrates that the assumption of normality used by Goodson results in the underestimation of the type I error rate of the tolerance method by a factor of 10. This underestimation is due to the positive kurtosis demonstrated in the distribution of replicate differences. Therefore, the assumption of normality does not seem warranted. It is shown here that a resampling technique more accurately estimates the type I error rate.

The estimates of false positive rates have important implications in the field of periodontics. When diagnostic decisions are based on single measurements, false positive rates are high. Even when thresholds …