Interexaminer agreement dental caries epidemiological surveys: the importance of disease prevalence in the sample

Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia

Tonello, Aline Sampieri²  Assaf, Andréa Videira⁵  Peres, Silvia Helena de Carvalho Salles⁴  Meneghim, Marcelo de Castro³  Silva, Renato Pereira da¹  Pereira, Antonio Carlos³  Ambrosano, Gláucia Maria Bovi³ 

[1]Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil

[2]Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luís, Brazil

[3]Universidade de Campinas, Piracicaba, Brazil

[4]Universidade de São Paulo, Bauru, Brazil

[5]Universidade Federal Fluminense, Nova Friburgo, Brazil

关键词: Sample size;    Reproducibility of results;    Dental health surveys;    Dental caries;    Calibration;    Epidemiology;   

DOI  :  10.1590/1980-5497201600020005

学科分类：过敏症与临床免疫学

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

:Objective: To identify desirable characteristics, including different sample sizes and dental caries prevalences, in virtual samples that allow, at the same time, higher values of general agreement percentage (GPA) and Kappa coefficient (κ), under a low confidence interval (CI), in reproducibility studies.Method: A total of 384 statistical simulations of inter-examiner calibration, varying sample size (12, 15, 20, 60, 200 and 500 individuals), caries prevalence (30, 50, 60 and 90%) and percentages of positive (PA) and negative (NA) agreement (30, 50, 60 and 90%) were undertaken. GPA and κ were used to measure reproducibility and define deviation between them.Results: The sample of 60 individuals, under caries prevalence of 50%, PA and NA of 90%, presented a GPA and Kappa values of 90 and 80%, respectively, a relative small confidence interval (95%CI 0.65 - 0.95) and a GPA/Kappa deviation of 10.00.Conclusion: A virtual sample of 60 individuals, under caries prevalence of 50%, seems feasible to produce a satisfactory interexaminer agreement at epidemiological conditions. However, epidemiological studies to corroborate or refute this assertion are necessary.

【 授权许可】

Unknown