Effect of patient age awareness on diagnostic agreement of chronic or aggressive periodontitis between clinicians; a pilot study

BACKGROUND The aim of this pilot study was to test whether diagnostic agreement of aggressive and chronic periodontitis amongst Board Certified Periodontists, is influenced by knowledge of a patient's age. In 1999 at the International World Workshop age was removed as a diagnostic criteria for aggressive periodontitis. The impact of this change on the diagnostic reliability amongst clinicians has not yet been assessed. METHODS Nine periodontal case reports were twice presented to sixteen board certified periodontists, once with age withheld and again with patient age provided. Participants were instructed to choose a diagnosis of Chronic Periodontitis or Aggressive Periodontitis. Diagnostic agreement was calculated using the Fleiss Kappa test. RESULTS Including the patients' age in case report information increased diagnostic agreement (the kappa statistic) from 0.49 (moderate agreement) to 0.61 (substantial agreement). CONCLUSION These results suggest that knowledge of a patients' age influenced clinical diagnosis, when distinguishing between aggressive periodontitis and chronic periodontitis, which may in turn impact treatment decision-making.