The Hispanic Community Health Study (HCHS)/Study of Latinos (SOL) is a 6.5 year study made up of four (4) field centers and one (1) coordinating center. Each field center will examine and follow 4000 study participants. The NIDCR provides funds for this project to support the planning, implementation and analysis of oral health / dental data collected on subject participants enrolled in the HCHS/SOL. It was specified that the HCHS/SOL exam be conducted in the same manner as the dental component of the NHANES studies run by the National Center for Health Statistics. While not all of the NHANES oral measures are included in the HCHS/SOL exam, those components that are included follow the NHANES protocol so that these data can be compared with national findings. The HCHS/SOL examiners are trained by and calibrated using NHANES methodology.
