EpiDentLatvia: Mapping the Epidemiological Profile of Oral Health in Latvian Children and Adolescents -  id: RSU-ZG-2024/1-0044

Description: “RSU internal and RSU with LASE external consolidation” No. 5.2.1.1.i.0/2/24/I/CFLA/005

A central component of the project is its commitment to open science. It will shares all cleaned and anonymized datasets and analysis scripts in FAIR-compliant repositories, ensuring transparency and reproducibility and encouraging citizen science. This allows public participation and collaboration with policymakers. Our goal is to democratize research tools and foster collaboration in public health.

Research Questions

1. Identify Risk Factors for Early Childhood Caries: What risk factors and behaviors are linked to early childhood caries in Latvia, and what is the benefit of machine learning in helping to identify vulnerable populations?

2. Quantifying the Impact of Early Childhood Caries: How does early childhood caries affect general anesthesia use for dental treatments in Latvia? Can predictive models identify high-risk patients? Is it possible to identify patients at risk of GA re-interventions?

3. Evaluate the Accessibility of Dental Services: How accessible are dental services in Latvia, and what disparities exist in service availability?

4. Assessing Long-Term Effects of Dental Service Disruptions: What long-term effects did COVID-19 dental service disruptions have on preventive and non-invasive treatments in Latvia? What is the effect of limiting public dental care on the community? 

5. Epidemiology of Oral Health in Adolescents in Latvia: What is the oral health status of Latvian adolescents aged 12–15, and how do lifestyle and socioeconomic factors influence their oral health outcomes?

Aims

1. Identify Risk Factors for Early Childhood Caries:

   • Analyze risk factors and prevalence and compare the performance of machine learning (Random Forests, XGBoost, LightGBM) against traditional regression.

   • Use R (tidymodels) for analysis, with cross-validation for model performance 

   • Aims to develop targeted preventive strategies to reduce early childhood caries (ECC) in Latvia.

2. Quantifying the Impact of Early Childhood Caries:

   • Assess the impact of ECC on general anesthesia use for surgical treatment, and explore the usefulness of machine learning for predictive analysis.

   • Explores the value of shifting towards minimally invasive interventions.

3. Evaluate the Accessibility of Dental Services:

   • Integrate GIS to map service availability and disparities across socioeconomic regions.

   • Use spatial data layers and dynamic dashboards to identify underserved regions.

   • Inform national oral health policies and optimize resource allocation.

4. Assessing Long-Term Effects of Dental Service Disruptions:

   • Evaluate long-term effects of COVID-19 dental service disruptions on coverage and demand.

   • Assess the shift towards preventive, non-invasive treatments (SciRep2024, BMC2021).

   • Utilize the natural experiment of service disruptions to evaluate systemic changes.

5. Epidemiology of Oral Health in Adolescents in Latvia:

   • Profile oral health status of adolescents aged 12–15, linking outcomes to lifestyle and socioeconomic factors.

   • Evaluate the effectiveness of childhood interventions and forecast adult oral health trends.

   • Offers a longitudinal perspective on early childhood caries risk factors and service accessibility.

Team

• Principal investigator: Prof Dr Sergio Uribe - LinkedIn

• Public Health Expert: Dr Ilze Maldupa - LinkedIn

Institutions

• Department of Conservative Dentistry and Oral Health, Riga Stradins University, Riga, Latvia

• Institute of Stomatology, RSU, Riga, Latvia

Scientific Output

1. Registrations

2. Research Data Management Plan

Uribe, S., & Maldupa, I. (2025). Research Data Management Plan (DMP) for EpiDentLatvia: Mapping the Epidemiological Profile of Oral Health in Latvian Children and Adolescents (Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15313345

3. Datasets

   1. Identify Risk Factors for Early Childhood Caries: (Dataset ECC [not published yet]).

   2. Quantifying the Impact of Early Childhood Caries: (Dataset GA [https://doi.org/10.48510/FK2/LUUOMS]).

   3. Evaluate the Accessibility of Dental Services: (Dataset COVERAGE [10.17605/OSF.IO/R9YA7]).

   4. Assessing Long-Term Effects of Dental Service Disruptions: (Dataset COVID [not published yet]).

   5. Epidemiology of Oral Health in Adolescents in Latvia: (Dataset YOUNG [not published yet]).

4. Publications

5. Presentations and Scientific Conferences

   1. MEMTAB, Birmingham, UK, 29th May - 1st April 2025

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