Rheumatoid arthritis antirheumatic drug trials: effects of a standardized instructional videotape on the reliability of observer-dependent outcome measures.

Abstract

AIMS: A study was designed to assess the effects of a standardized instructional videotape on reducing interobserver variability for several commonly used observer-dependent outcome measures. METHODS: During a single day, six rheumatologists independently examined six patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a predetermined order using a Latin square design, before and after viewing a standardized videotape demonstrating 13 examination techniques. Reliability coefficients were calculated based on the variance components of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) table. RESULTS: Prestandardization reliability coefficients were >0.80 for all measures and remained above 0.80 following standardizatio..