Awareness of treatment: A source of bias in subjective grading of ocular complications.
Journal
PloS one
ISSN: 1932-6203
Titre abrégé: PLoS One
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101285081
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2019
2019
Historique:
received:
21
06
2019
accepted:
10
12
2019
entrez:
27
12
2019
pubmed:
27
12
2019
medline:
3
4
2020
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Bias has been described as one important obstacle in scientific research. The aim of this study was to explore "awareness of treatment" as a possible source of bias in subjective grading of ocular complications. Thirty subjects with similar, basic experience with grading scales participated in the study. The Efron grading scales were used to grade 24 images of three different ocular conditions (eight images each of bulbar hyperaemia, limbal vascularization and corneal staining). Three consecutive, two weeks apart, grading sessions were scheduled, in which the same images were graded, although in the third session images were deceptively labelled as either "treated" or "untreated". Grading results from the first and second sessions were compared to determine grading reliability and discrepancies with the third session informed of grading bias originating from "awareness of treatment". Moderate to good test-retest reliability was found for all conditions, with median intraclass correlation values of 0.80 (0.62-0.84) for bulbar hyperaemia, 0.68 (0.65-0.77) for limbal vascularization and 0.68 (0.66-0.74) for corneal staining. Grading values from the first and third sessions evidenced negative and positive systematic errors (bias) for "treated" and "untreated" conditions, respectively. Statistically significant differences were found between the average grading discrepancies of session 1 and session 2 and those of session 1 and session 3 (all p<0.001). "Awareness of treatment" may be considered a source of bias of subjective grading of ocular complications, although the actual effect of bias is unlikely to be of clinical significance.
Identifiants
pubmed: 31877190
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226960
pii: PONE-D-19-17494
pmc: PMC6932789
doi:
Banques de données
figshare
['10.6084/m9.figshare.8299700']
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e0226960Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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