RT Book, Section
A1 Portney, Leslie G.
A1 Watkins, Mary P.
SR Print(0)
ID 1138250210
T1 Reliability of Measurements
T2 Foundations of Clinical Research: Applications to Practice, 3e
YR 2017
FD 2017
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9780803646575
LK fadavispt.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1138250210
RD 2024/04/19
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.