title: Inter-rater reliability of the Hayes Ability Screening Index in a sample of Australian prisoners.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Reliable ascertainment of intellectual disability (ID) is important to identify those with special needs, in order for those needs to be met in the criminal justice system. Although the Hayes Ability Screening Index (HASI) is valid and widely used for the identification of possible ID, the risk of inter-rater bias between researchers when scoring the HASI has not yet been established. The current paper estimates the inter-rater reliability of the HASI in a sample of Indigenous and non-Indigenous prisoners in Western Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  We estimated intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for the consistency of agreement among three blinded raters using a two-way random-effects model assessing the inter-rater agreement of the HASI. Kappa was also estimated for the dichotomous HASI screening threshold outcome between the raters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The HASI exhibited very good within-subject consistency of agreement for Section B (ICC = 0.95; 95%CI:0.94-0.96), Section C (ICC = 0.97; 95%CI: 0.96-0.98) and Section D (ICC = 0.90; 95%CI: 0.87-0.92) subscales and for the total scaled score (ICC = 0.97; 95%CI: 0.96-0.98). The inter-rater reliability of the dichotomous adult ID screening threshold (<85) was also very good (Kappa = 0.95).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current study provides new evidence that the HASI has a low risk of bias from between-rater scoring and can be reliably scored by both non-clinicians and clinicians with little training, when administered in prison settings. Pre-scoring training should focus on the more subjective 'clock-drawing' section, in order to maximise inter-rater reliability.
authors.affiliation: Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.|Centre for Health Services Research, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.|National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Mater Misericordiae Hospital, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: van Dooren
authors.affiliation: Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Mater Misericordiae Hospital, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: N G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Lennox
authors.affiliation: Kirby Institute, UNSW Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: T G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.affiliation: Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.|School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.|School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, The Alfred Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.|Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kinner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011329:Prisoners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014904:Western Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: intellectual disability; prisoners; reliability; scoring methods; screening