Biomaterial Database

Interpretation of low kappa values. 1993

D K Donker, and A Hasman, and H P van Geijn

Department of Medical Informatics and Statistics, University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

The use of the kappa statistic is commonly accepted as a measure for interobserver variability. However, in some situations, the interpretation of kappa should be handled with care. In this study 21 obstetricians were asked to segment and classify 13 cardiotocographic recordings for the major fetal heart rate (FHR) patterns acceleration, baseline FHR level, deceleration and undefined segments. In two cases the kappa statistic showed a poor group agreement. These low kappa values, however, were mainly due to the high proportion of baseline segments indicated by the referees. This finding will be exemplified by a discussion of one of the cases.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009774	Obstetrics	A medical-surgical specialty concerned with management and care of women during pregnancy, parturition, and the puerperium.
D011247	Pregnancy	The status during which female mammals carry their developing young (EMBRYOS or FETUSES) in utero before birth, beginning from FERTILIZATION to BIRTH.	Gestation,Pregnancies
D011336	Probability	The study of chance processes or the relative frequency characterizing a chance process.	Probabilities
D003627	Data Interpretation, Statistical	Application of statistical procedures to analyze specific observed or assumed facts from a particular study.	Data Analysis, Statistical,Data Interpretations, Statistical,Interpretation, Statistical Data,Statistical Data Analysis,Statistical Data Interpretation,Analyses, Statistical Data,Analysis, Statistical Data,Data Analyses, Statistical,Interpretations, Statistical Data,Statistical Data Analyses,Statistical Data Interpretations
D005260	Female		Females
D005311	Fetal Hypoxia	Deficient oxygenation of FETAL BLOOD.	Anoxia, Fetal,Fetal Anoxia,Hypoxia, Fetal
D006340	Heart Rate, Fetal	The heart rate of the FETUS. The normal range at term is between 120 and 160 beats per minute.	Fetal Heart Rate,Fetal Heart Rates,Heart Rates, Fetal,Rate, Fetal Heart,Rates, Fetal Heart
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012680	Sensitivity and Specificity	Binary classification measures to assess test results. Sensitivity or recall rate is the proportion of true positives. Specificity is the probability of correctly determining the absence of a condition. (From Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)	Specificity,Sensitivity,Specificity and Sensitivity
D015148	Cardiotocography	Monitoring of FETAL HEART frequency before birth in order to assess impending prematurity in relation to the pattern or intensity of antepartum UTERINE CONTRACTION.	CTG, Antepartum,Cardiotocogram,Electronic Fetal Monitoring,External Cardiotocography,External Fetal Monitoring,Internal Cardiotocography,Internal Fetal Monitoring,Antepartum CTG,Cardiotocograms,Cardiotocography, External,Cardiotocography, Internal,Fetal Monitoring, Electronic,Fetal Monitoring, External,Fetal Monitoring, Internal,Monitoring, Electronic Fetal,Monitoring, External Fetal,Monitoring, Internal Fetal