Reliability of nutritional screening and assessment tools.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this paper is to address the design and analysis of studies for evaluating the reliability of a nutritional screening or assessment tool.


METHODS
Statistical aspects of reliability are discussed with the non-statistician in mind. Design issues are considered in relation to numbers of raters and subjects and to the appropriateness of raters. The analysis of data to obtain a measure of reliability and its confidence interval is illustrated with examples. Practical suggestions regarding the implementation of reliability studies in the field of nutritional risk assessment are proposed.


CONCLUSIONS
Guidelines for the standardization of the design, analysis, and publication of results are presented.
Mathematics Department, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. j.m.jones@maths.keele.ac.uk
J Mary
JM
Jones
D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000592:standards*; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D018401:Sample Size; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity