The INTERMED Japanese version: inter-rater reliability and internal consistency.
OBJECTIVE
The intent of this study was to establish the inter-rater reliability and the internal consistency of the Japanese version of the INTERMED.


METHODS
The study included a series of patients referred to psychiatric consultation service or palliative care service. The study participants were independently scored using the INTERMED by the raters.


RESULTS
The INTERMED-Japanese version had high inter-rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.98) and high internal consistency (alpha=.89). All four domains (biological, psychological, social, and health care domains) were positively correlated. Based on a cutoff score of 20/21, a κ of 0.79 was found.


CONCLUSIONS
The INTERMED is an easy and useful proactive biopsychosocial screening tool, which could be a reasonable utility under the current Japanese health care situations. Future studies focusing on the INTERMED utility in improving health care delivery for patients with complex biopsychosocial care needs has to be demonstrated in various medical settings in Japan.
Department of Psychiatry, Saitama Medical Center, Saitama Medical University, Kawagoe-shi, Saitama, Japan. yk1228@gmail.com
Yasuhiro
Y
Kishi
Maki
M
Matsuki
Hidetoshi
H
Mizushima
Hideyuki
H
Matsuki
Yukiko
Y
Ohmura
Naoshi
N
Horikawa
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008487:Medical History Taking / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results