title: Inter-rater reliability of the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX): comparative data from non-clinician respondents-all raters are not equal.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX) is used to obtain information about executive and emotional problems after neuropathology. The DEX is self-completed by the patient (DEX-S) and an independent rater such as a family member (DEX-I). This study examined the level of inter-rater agreement between either two or three non-clinician raters on the DEX-I in order to establish the reliability of DEX-I ratings.
  
  
  METHODS
  Family members and/or carers of 60 people with mixed neuropathology completed the DEX-I. For each patient, DEX-I ratings were obtained from either two or three raters who knew the person well prior to brain injury.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This study obtained two independent-ratings for 60 patients and three independent-ratings for 36 patients. Intra-class correlations revealed that there was only a modest level of agreement for items, sub-scale and total DEX scores between raters for their particular family member. Several individual DEX items had low reliability and ratings for the emotion sub-scale had the lowest level of agreement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Independent DEX ratings completed by two or more non-clinician raters show only moderate correlation. Suggestions are made for improving the reliability of DEX-I ratings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sheffield Hallam University , UK. l.barker@shu.ac.uk
authors.forename: Lynne Ann
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Morton
authors.forename: Todd Graham
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.forename: Brian Edward
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: McGuire
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D017028:Caregivers; D056344:Executive Function; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult