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Inter-rater agreement and reliability of the COSMIN (COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement Instruments) Checklist

Abstract:

Background: The COSMIN checklist is a tool for evaluating the methodological quality of studies on measurement properties of health-related patient-reported outcomes. The aim of this study is to determine the inter-rater agreement and reliability of each item score of the COSMIN checklist (n = 114).

Methods: 75 articles evaluating measurement properties were randomly selected from the bibliographic database compiled by the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Group, Oxford, UK. Raters were asked to assess the methodological quality of three articles, using the COSMIN checklist. In a one-way design, percentage agreement and intraclass kappa coefficients or quadratic-weighted kappa coefficients were calculated for each item.

Results: 88 raters participated. Of the 75 selected articles, 26 articles were rated by four to six participants, and 49 by two or three participants. Overall, percentage agreement was appropriate (68% was above 80% agreement), and the kappa coefficients for the COSMIN items were low (61% was below 0.40, 6% was above 0.75). Reasons for low inter-rater agreement were need for subjective judgement, and accustom to different standards, terminology and definitions.

Conclusions: Results indicated that raters often choose the same response option, but that it is difficult on item level to distinguish between articles. When using the COSMIN checklist in a systematic review, we recommend getting some training and experience, completing it by two independent raters, and reaching consensus on one final rating. Instructions for using the checklist are improved.

Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Files:
Publisher copy:
10.1186/1471-2288-10-82

Authors


More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
Nuffield Department of Population Health
Role:
Author


Publisher:
BioMed Central
Journal:
BMC Medical Research Methodology More from this journal
Volume:
10
Article number:
82
Publication date:
2010-09-22
Acceptance date:
2010-09-22
DOI:
EISSN:
1471-2288


Language:
English
Keywords:
UUID:
uuid:2def9d2f-a841-4e12-a6fb-8f1593c11bc3
Local pid:
pubs:163603
Source identifiers:
163603
Deposit date:
2012-12-19

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