Table 7.

Multivariate analyses exploring demographic, clinical, and systemic health predictors of disease patterns

Analysis type	Main variables	Key findings/metrics	Interpretation
K-means clustering	Age, no. of medications, caries count	3 clusters identified: C0 older ( n ≈ 210 ); C1 younger ( n ≈ 165 ); C2 outlier ( n ≈ 8 )	Distinct age-related profiles of disease burden and caries experience
Network analysis	Diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism, asthma	Strongest links: DM–HTN r = 0.275; HTN–Hypo r = 0.155; DM–Hypo r = 0.104	Suggests shared cardiometabolic risk pathways
Decision tree model	Age, diabetes, hypertension, no. of medications	Accuracy = 74.4%; precision = 75%; recall = 85.7%; f1 = 80%; primary split age = 42.5 y	Age dominant predictor (65.1%), followed by diabetes (19.8%) and medication count (15.1%)