Student paper. The inter-rater reliability and validity of self-report of risk factors for cumulative trauma disorders within the hand therapist population -- a pilot study.

Objectives: This study examined the validity of hand therapists' self-report of cumulative trauma disorder (CTD) risk factors by comparing the self-report to observations performed by the raters. Inter-rater reliability was also analyzed between the raters who observed the hand therapists. Study Design: Two raters simultaneously observed each hand therapist during a splinting task at a therapy facility. Following this task, the raters and the hand therapist independently completed an identical assessment tool. Thirteen therapists were observed and a total of six raters observed the therapists. Responses from two categories of the self-assessment, 'posture' and 'mechanical stress', were compared. percentage of agreement was calculated by dividing the number of like responses by the total number of possible responses for each category. Results: Overall inter-rater reliability was 72%, significantly above the accepted minimum standard of 60-70%, and validity was 39%, significantly below the accepted minimum. Conclusion: The high percentage of inter-rater reliability established consistency and accuracy among the raters in their observations. However, the low percentage of validity should prompt hand therapists to investigate the accuracy of a patient's self-report before relying on it for treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]