title: Osteoarthritis antirheumatic drug trials. I. Effects of standardization procedures on observer dependent outcome measures.
abstract: We designed a study to assess the effects of standardization procedures on reducing interobserver variability for outcome measures given in the current Food and Drug Administration and European League Against Rheumatism guidelines and others selected from the rheumatology literature. Over 2 days, 6 rheumatologists independently examined 6 patients with osteoarthritis (OA) in predetermined order before and after standardizing their examination techniques. An important and beneficial effect of the standardization procedure was observed on the majority of outcome variables. Such reductions in observer variability have the potential to diminish sample size requirements for OA antirheumatic drug studies.
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bellamy
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carette
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Ford
authors.forename: W F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Kean
authors.forename: N G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: le Riche
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lussier
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents