TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Reliability of Measurements A1 - Portney, Leslie G. A1 - Watkins, Mary P. Y1 - 2017 N1 - T2 - Foundations of Clinical Research: Applications to Practice, 3e AB - The usefulness of measurement in clinical research and decision making depends on the extent to which clinicians can rely on data as accurate and meaningful indicators of a behavior or attribute. The first prerequisite, at the heart of measurement, is reliability, or the extent to which a measurement is consistent and free from error. Reliability can be conceptualized as reproducibility or dependability. If a patient's behavior is reliable, we can expect consistent responses under given conditions. A reliable examiner is one who will be able to measure repeated outcomes with consistent scores. Similarly, a reliable instrument is one that will perform with predictable consistency under set conditions. Reliability is fundamental to all aspects of measurement, because without it we cannot have confidence in the data we collect, nor can we draw rational conclusions from those data. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/29 UR - fadavispt.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1138250210 ER -