Ophthalmology Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Ophthalmology, including details on eye surgery, myopia, cataracts.

Statistical strategies to assess reliability in ophthalmology.

Patton N, Aslam T, Murray G

Lions Eye Institute, Nedlands, Western Australia, WA, Australia. niallpatton@hotmail.com

Reliability of measurements and measurers is important so that we can trust the measurements we record. However, the statistical techniques used to assess reliability of measurements or measurers in the ophthalmic literature are often inappropriate, and not able to evaluate reliability between measurements/measurers. We review the techniques used in reliability studies for both continuous and categorical data, and describe appropriate statistical methods for particular study designs. We also highlight current techniques that are not appropriate in the analysis of reliability, but that are still commonly used in the ophthalmic literature. We hope that by highlighting these, we shall discourage their future use.

Published 6 July 2006 in Eye, 20(7): 749-54.
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