The inter-observer agreement of examining pre-school children with acute cough: a nested study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The presence of clinical signs have implications for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the inter-observer agreement of clinical signs in pre-school children presenting to primary care.

Methods

A nested study comparing two clinical assessments within a prospective cohort of 256 pre-school children with acute cough recruited from eight general practices in Leicestershire, UK. We examined agreement (using kappa statistics) between unstandardised and standardised clinical assessments of tachypnoea, chest signs and fever.

Results

Kappa values were poor or fair for all clinical signs (range 0.12 to 0.39) with chest signs the most reliable.

Conclusions

Primary care clinicians should be aware that clinical si

SUBMITTER: Hay AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC387826 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature