Citation

Roberts I, Moran K. J. Paediatr. Child Health 1995; 31(4): 290-291.

Affiliation

Starship Children's Health, South Pacific, Auckland, New Zealand.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

7576884

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine inter- and intra-rater reliability in the assessment of genital findings in cases of suspected child sexual abuse. METHODOLOGY: Colposcopic photographs of the external genitalia of 70 female children were independently assessed by child sexual abuse teams in Auckland and Sydney. For the Auckland centre, intra-rater reliability was assessed by making a second independent assessment 6 months following the first. Reliability was quantified using per cent of agreement and Cohen's Kappa statistic. RESULTS: There were high levels of inter- and intra-rater agreement. When photographs were classified as normal/non specific or strongly indicative of child sexual abuse, there was 93% agreement between the Auckland and Sydney teams with a kappa score of 0.70. For the two separate ratings made by the Auckland team there was 94% agreement with a kappa score of 0.75. CONCLUSIONS: The high levels of inter- and intra-rater agreement obtained in this study were reassuring. The results obtained compare favourably with the results of reliability studies in other areas of medical practice.

Language: en