Date of Defense

6-20-2014

Date of Graduation

6-2014

Department

Biological Sciences

First Advisor

Allen Webb

Second Advisor

Jennifer Long

Third Advisor

Michael Leonard

Abstract

This meta-analysis compares and contrasts three types of population-based research methodology currently used to analyze correlations between Periodontal disease and Cardiovascular disease, the most wide spread diseases in the Western industrialized world. The three studies that were analyzed in this thesis include: "Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Periodontal Disease, Tooth Loss, and Atherosclerosis," published in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases (2013), this was a cross-sectional population-based study; "Periodontal Disease and Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes" published in Diabetes Care (2005), this was a longitudinal population-based study; and "Identification of a Shared Genetic Susceptibility Locus for Coronary Heart Disease and Periodontitis" published in PLoS Genetics (2009), this was a candidate-gene association population-based study. Population-based studies offer important ways to examine questions about the relationships between diseases specifically because they do not single out individuals; instead a group of individuals are studied and the results are used to understand a target population. We are faced everyday with impediments in our understanding of the human body, and changes and new diseases arise all the time. As we progress in the ways we understand the relationship between disorders and make more sophisticated our research protocols - the ways in which we study these disorders -- we can progress in learning to treat them.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

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