title: Combining discrepant diagnostic information from multiple sources: are complex algorithms better than simple ones?
abstract: Optimizing methods of combining discrepant diagnostic information from multiple sources is one of the more daunting tasks facing the field of child psychopathology. Several researchers have asserted that complex information-combining schemes, those in which certain information or sources of information are weighted differently from others, are preferable. This study provides theoretical and empirical evidence that simple information-combining schemes, those in which all information from all sources is weighted equally, will as a rule work as well as complex schemes and may even work better. The implications of these findings for diagnostic instrument and algorithm design are discussed. A two-step diagnostic procedure utilizing a simple information-combining scheme is presented.
authors.affiliation: Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Piacentini
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002665:Child Psychiatry; D003625:Data Collection; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis