Authors: E Jeffrey Metter E L Metter P T Costa L J Brant A Zonderman J L Fozard
Publish Date: 2013/07/01
Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 43-52
Abstract
Two approaches were used to study the stability over time and intravisit reliability of health questions and clinical medical examination items in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging BLSA The stability of responses was determined by evaluating the medical history and physical examination completed at each visit to identify items that once answered in a positive manner should continue to be answered positively over time Stability for each question and subject was calculated by the number of positive responses following the first positive response divided by the total number of visits following the first positive response For 35 questions answered by the subject the stability was 58 by a simple average or 64 when weighted for the percentage of subjects who had a positive response to the question for 10 physicianasked questions the corresponding figures were 29 or 36 Eighteen items from the physical examination had a stability of 34 or 37 Intravisit reliability was estimated by comparing responses from the general health questionnaire to responses on the Cornell Medical Index completed at the same visit Subjectcompleted questions had substantial agreement Kappa=074 for questions worded the same while physicianasked questions had moderate agreement Kappa=044 Aging Clin Exp Res 4 43–52 1992
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