Statistical analysis for identifying mediating variables in public health dentistry interventions

Objective: This article provides an overview of statistical mediation analysis methods in the evaluation of public health dentistry interventions. Methods and Results: First, reasons for conducting mediation analysis are outlined, followed by a discussion of the link between the mediation model and theoretical bases of interventions. Second, the basic statistical procedures in mediation analysis are presented. An example application to data from a hypothetical intervention is provided in Appendix A. Third, interpretation of the results from statistical mediation analysis is described along with additional information pertinent to identifying true mediation relations. Conclusions: Guidelines for describing mediation analyses in research articles related to public health dentistry intervention studies are outlined.