Reliability of Hand Diagrams for the Epidemiologic

Authors: Ann Marie Dale Jaime Strickland Jürgen Symanzik Alfred Franzblau Bradley Evanoff

Publish Date: 2008/06/03

Volume: 18, Issue: 3, Pages: 233-

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the interrater reliability of hand diagrams which are commonly used in research case definitions of carpal tunnel syndrome CTS To evaluate the potential of nonrandom misclassification of cases we also studied predictors of rater disagreement as a function of personal and work factors and of hand symptoms not classic for CTS Participants in a longitudinal study investigating the development of CTS completed repeated selfadministered questionnaires Three experienced clinicians blind to subjects’ work or personal history independently rated all hand diagrams on an ordinal scale from 0 to 3 Disagreements between ratings were resolved by consensus Reliability was measured by the weighted kappa statistic Logistic regression models evaluated predictors of disagreement Three hundred and thirtythree subjects completed 494 hand diagrams Eightyfive percent were completed by selfadministered questionnaire and 15 by telephone interview Weighted kappa values representing agreement among the three raters were 083 95 CI 078 087 for right hand diagrams and 088 95 CI 083 091 for left hand diagrams Ratings from hand diagrams obtained by telephone interview produced better agreement Agreement among raters was not affected by subjects’ personal or work factors Disagreement among raters was associated with the presence of hand/wrist symptoms other than classic CTS symptoms Overall high levels of agreement were attained by independent raters of hand diagrams Personal factors did not affect agreement among raters but presence of nonCTS symptoms seemed to affect results and should be considered in studies focused on diverse populations with heterogeneity of upper extremity symptoms

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