Analytical Strategies and Tactics in Salivary Bioscience

This chapter provides an overview of many of the methodological obstacles and opportunities of salivary analyte data analysis. Salivary data processing procedures essential for data validity and reliability, but rarely described in the literature (e.g., flow-rate adjustments, the handling of censored data points, and data transformations), are discussed. Statistical modeling approaches appropriate for salivary biomeasure data (e.g., multilevel modeling and latent state-trait analysis) are also described. Recommendations for data processing and statistical modeling are proposed to improve validity, reliability, precision, and cross-study consistency for the next generation of studies.