Intra-rater reliability

About: Intra-rater reliability is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2073 publications have been published within this topic receiving 140968 citations.

Ultrasound imaging in patients with hip pain and suspected hip osteoarthritis: an inter-rater and intra-rater reliability study

Abstract: Objectives The objectives of this study were to asses (1) inter-rater and intrarater reliability of ultrasound imaging in patients with hip osteoarthritis, and (2) agreement between ultrasound and X-ray findings of hip osteoarthritis using validated Outcome Measures in Rheumatology ultrasound definitions for pathology. Design An inter-rater and intrarater reliability study. Setting A single-centre study conducted at a regional hospital. Participants 50 patients >39 years of age referred for radiography due to hip pain and suspected hip osteoarthritis were included. Exclusion criteria were previous hip surgery in the painful hip, suspected fracture or malignant changes in the hip. Intervention Bilateral ultrasound examinations (n=92) were performed continuously by two experienced operators blinded to clinical information and other imaging findings. After 4–6 weeks, one operator reassessed the images. X-rays were assessed by a third imaging specialist. Primary and secondary outcome measures Inter-rater and intrarater reliability and agreement between ultrasound imaging and X-ray were assessed using Cohen’s ordinal kappa statistics for binary categorical variables and weighted kappa for ordered categorical variables. Results Kappa values (κ) for inter-rater reliability were 0.9 and 0.8 for hip effusion/synovitis and osteoarthritis grading, respectively. For acetabular and femoral osteophytes, femoral cartilage changes and labrum changes κ ranged from 0.4 to 0.7. Intrarater reliability had κ equal or higher compared with inter-rater reliability. Agreement between ultrasound and X-ray findings ranged from κ=0.2 to κ=0.5. Conclusion This study demonstrated substantial to almost perfect reliability on the most common ultrasound findings related to hip osteoarthritis and osteoarthritis grading. Agreement on the grade of osteoarthritis between ultrasound and X-ray was moderate. Overall, these results support ultrasound imaging as a reliable tool in the assessment of hip osteoarthritis.

Reliability growth and demonstration: The Multi-Phase Reliability Growth Model (MPRGM)

Abstract: The Multi-Phase Reliability Growth Model (MPRGM) has two key distinguishing features when compared with extant reliability growth models. Firstly, it accurately incorporates complex reliability growth test phases based on ‘design dates,’ allowing observed reliability characteristics to be attributable to specific points in reliability growth. The incorporation of ‘design dates’ allows complex, overlapping and dissimilar phases of reliability growth testing to be accurately incorporated into subsequent analysis. In contrast to the MPRGM, many existing models assume immediate implementation of design improvements (corrective actions or fixes) on discovering failure, or uniform application of ‘design delays’ in implementing reliability growth test phases. Secondly and perhaps most importantly, the MPRGM involves an ‘abstract time,’ 10, associated with preliminary design. This time implies that a system's reliability is ‘zero’ at the point where preliminary design commences and not the start of reliability growth testing. This overcomes the problem of many Power Law reliability growth models that imply a nonsensical mean time between failure of zero at the commencement of reliability growth. By overcoming these shortcomings, the MPRGM is equally applicable to reliability growth planning, tracking and projection. It also allows data from multiple reliability growth test phases to be aggregated in a way that provides assurance on demonstrated reliability growth, to the extent that it can be used in an acceptance testing framework.

Reliability and Cost Optimization

Abstract: One of the problems that Reliability Engineers are faced after defining the redundancy techniques is to select the one which is the cheapest in Life Cycle Cost term. In this article we shall present an example of redundancy that increase the cost of the system but reduce the LCC and we shall introduce CARE (Computer Aided Reliability Engineering) software tool which was used.

Parkinson Activity Scale: cross-cultural adaptation and reliability of the Brazilian version

Abstract: Aim Following the substantial growth of the elderly population in Brazil, there has been an increase in cases of Parkinson's disease (PD), which raises the need for reliable and culturally adapted scales specific to the disease. The Parkinson Activity Scale (PAS) was developed in order to assess the activity level of people with PD through tasks related to mobility. The aims of the present study were to translate the cross-cultural adaptation of the PAS into Brazillian Portuguese and analyze its reliability during the “on” phase of PD. Methods A total of 25 patients with PD participated in the study. The intrarater reliability was evaluated using a test–retest design with a 1-week interval. Results The interrater reliability was tested twice on the same day by two different raters. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and the Bland and Altman plots were calculated to examine the test–retest and interrater reliabilities for total score of the PAS, whereas the weighted Kappa (Wk) was used to assess interrater agreement. The interrater ICC was 0.89 and Wk was 0.65 for the total score. For intrarater reliability, the total score ICC was 0.88. Conclusions The present study suggests that the Brazilian version of the PAS is a reliable instrument for the assessment of mobility in elderly patients with PD. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2015; 15: 89–95.

The Puzzle of Emotion Regulation: Development and Evaluation of the Tangram Emotion Coding Manual for Children.

Abstract: The ability to regulate one's emotions is crucial to engaging successfully in social contexts. Difficulties in emotion regulation are seen in multiple psychiatric disorders, prompting an increased interest in the concept. Suitable methods for assessing emotion regulation, however, are lacking. In this study, we investigated the interrater and intrarater reliability, construct validity, and content validity of a new observational method for evaluating children's emotion regulation abilities (a complex puzzle task) in a sample of 62 children without psychiatric disorders and 23 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) aged 7-12, using intra-class correlation coefficients for the reliability analyses and Spearman's rank-order correlations for analyses of convergent and discriminant validity. A panel of experts examined the content validity of the test, and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to investigate the ability of the test to differentiate the non-clinical group from the ADHD group. Results showed a high level of interrater and intrarater reliability of the test. There was mixed evidence for convergent and discriminant validity as expected due to the novelty and experimental nature of the test, making it difficult to compare with questionnaire-based measures. Content validity analysis was satisfactory, and the group comparison showed that the test differentiated the groups on the primary outcome measure. Overall, the measure demonstrated high feasibility and satisfactory psychometric properties. The generic nature of the test makes it suitable for use across psychiatric disorders and age groups with potential relevance in both research and clinical settings.