title: Interrater reliability of the Clinical Dementia Rating in a multicenter trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the interrater reliability of the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) in a multicenter clinical trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Training session for a multicenter trial of milameline, a direct muscarinic agonist, in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-four raters (physicians and nurses) familiar with drug trials and expert in the care of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  Independent scoring of the CDR using four videotaped CDR interviews.
  
  
  METHODS
  Interrater reliability, as tested by the Kappa statistic
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall interrater reliability was 0.62. Within the CDR domains, the global kappas ranged from 0.33 +/- 0.06 to 0.88 +/- 0.06.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data support moderate to high overall interrater reliability but show important difficulties in the reliable assessment of early dementia.
authors.affiliation: Division of Geriatric Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rockwood
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Strang
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: MacKnight
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Downer
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Morris
mesh_terms: D003704:Dementia / Q000145:classification* / Q000188:drug therapy; D004095:Dihydropyridines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D018721:Muscarinic Agonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015588:Observer Variation; D010091:Oximes / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D004095:Dihydropyridines; D018721:Muscarinic Agonists; D010091:Oximes; C084978:milameline