Reliability and agreement studies: a guide for clinical investigators

Setting the framework: the difference between reliability and agreement On a daily basis, clinicians and researchers face the challenge of measuring multiple outcomes. From responses to therapies and assessments of disease activity, to certainty of diagnoses and innovation of cutting-edge diagnostic tools, it is essential within every field that outcome measurement be valid, reproducible and reliable.1 At first glance, validity, reproducibility, reliability and agreement may seem similar; however, there are fundamental differences among these concepts that are important for study design and execution, and for methodology and statistical analyses. Alvan Feinstein saw that problem and introduced the term clinimetrics, or, "the methodologic discipline focusing on measurement issues in clinical medicine".2 The concept of clinimetrics is not new; on the contrary, it has been considered a subset of psychometrics.3 Terwee, de Vet, Mokkink and Knol, among others,4 developed tools to assess...
Source: Gut - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: Leading article Source Type: research