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Assessing observer agreement when describing and classifying functioning with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health

Assessing observer agreement when describing and classifying functioning with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
Assessing observer agreement when describing and classifying functioning with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
Objective: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is used increasingly to describe and classify functioning in medicine without being a psychometrically sound measure. All categories of the ICF are quantified using the same generic 0–4 scale. The objective of this study was to assess observer agreement when describing and classifying functioning with the ICF.
Design: A second-level category of the ICF, d430 lifting and carrying objects, was used as an example. To the qualifiers of this category, clinically meaningful definitions were assigned. Data were collected in a cross-sectional survey with repeated measurement. We report raw, specific and chance-corrected measures or agreement, a graphical method and the results of log-linear models for ordinal agreement.
Subjects/patients: A convenience sample of patients requiring physical therapy in an acute hospital.
Results: Twenty-five patients were assessed twice by 2 observers. Raw agreement was 0.52. Kappa was 0.36, indicating fair agreement. Different hierarchical log-linear models indicated that the strength of agreement was not homogeneous over all categories.
Conclusion: Observer agreement has to be evaluated when describing and classifying functioning using the ICF Qualifiers'scale. When assessing inter-observer reliability, the first step is to calculate a summary statistic. Modelling agreement yields valuable insight into the structure of a contingency table, which can lead to further improvement of the scale.
1650-1977
71-76
Grill, Eva
859ba1e1-b539-46c1-b644-237f3add6814
Mansmann, Ulrich
366601c7-1bea-49f8-9e1e-13f48ac5081a
Cieza, Alarcos
a0df25c5-ee2c-4580-82b3-d0a75591580e
Stucki, Gerold
0534525c-103b-45be-b0a5-061d8867ef0d
Grill, Eva
859ba1e1-b539-46c1-b644-237f3add6814
Mansmann, Ulrich
366601c7-1bea-49f8-9e1e-13f48ac5081a
Cieza, Alarcos
a0df25c5-ee2c-4580-82b3-d0a75591580e
Stucki, Gerold
0534525c-103b-45be-b0a5-061d8867ef0d

Grill, Eva, Mansmann, Ulrich, Cieza, Alarcos and Stucki, Gerold (2007) Assessing observer agreement when describing and classifying functioning with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 39 (1), 71-76. (doi:10.2340/16501977-0016). (PMID:17225041)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Objective: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is used increasingly to describe and classify functioning in medicine without being a psychometrically sound measure. All categories of the ICF are quantified using the same generic 0–4 scale. The objective of this study was to assess observer agreement when describing and classifying functioning with the ICF.
Design: A second-level category of the ICF, d430 lifting and carrying objects, was used as an example. To the qualifiers of this category, clinically meaningful definitions were assigned. Data were collected in a cross-sectional survey with repeated measurement. We report raw, specific and chance-corrected measures or agreement, a graphical method and the results of log-linear models for ordinal agreement.
Subjects/patients: A convenience sample of patients requiring physical therapy in an acute hospital.
Results: Twenty-five patients were assessed twice by 2 observers. Raw agreement was 0.52. Kappa was 0.36, indicating fair agreement. Different hierarchical log-linear models indicated that the strength of agreement was not homogeneous over all categories.
Conclusion: Observer agreement has to be evaluated when describing and classifying functioning using the ICF Qualifiers'scale. When assessing inter-observer reliability, the first step is to calculate a summary statistic. Modelling agreement yields valuable insight into the structure of a contingency table, which can lead to further improvement of the scale.

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Published date: January 2007
Organisations: Psychology

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Local EPrints ID: 341596
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/341596
ISSN: 1650-1977
PURE UUID: 616afd3b-6b77-455e-9b37-388df264b127

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Date deposited: 27 Jul 2012 15:52
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 11:41

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Contributors

Author: Eva Grill
Author: Ulrich Mansmann
Author: Alarcos Cieza
Author: Gerold Stucki

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