Kappa coefficient: a popular measure of rater agreement

Wan Tang; Jun Hu; Hui Zhang; Pan Wu; Hua He

doi:10.11919/j.issn.1002-0829.215010

Kappa coefficient: a popular measure of rater agreement

Wan Tang^*, Jun Hu, Hui Zhang, Pan Wu, Hua He

^*Corresponding author for this work

Preventive Medicine

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

181 Scopus citations

Abstract

Summary: In mental health and psychosocial studies it is often necessary to report on the between-rater agreement of measures used in the study. This paper discusses the concept of agreement, highlighting its fundamental difference from correlation. Several examples demonstrate how to compute the kappa coefficient - a popular statistic for measuring agreement - both by hand and by using statistical software packages such as SAS and SPSS. Real study data are used to illustrate how to use and interpret this coefficient in clinical research and practice. The article concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the coefficient.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	62-67
Number of pages	6
Journal	Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry
Volume	27
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.11919/j.issn.1002-0829.215010
State	Published - 2015

Keywords

Correlation
Interrater agreement
Kappa coefficient
Weighted kappa

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Neurology
Psychiatry and Mental health

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.11919/j.issn.1002-0829.215010

Cite this

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abstract = "Summary: In mental health and psychosocial studies it is often necessary to report on the between-rater agreement of measures used in the study. This paper discusses the concept of agreement, highlighting its fundamental difference from correlation. Several examples demonstrate how to compute the kappa coefficient - a popular statistic for measuring agreement - both by hand and by using statistical software packages such as SAS and SPSS. Real study data are used to illustrate how to use and interpret this coefficient in clinical research and practice. The article concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the coefficient.",

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AU - Zhang, Hui

AU - Wu, Pan

AU - He, Hua

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Summary: In mental health and psychosocial studies it is often necessary to report on the between-rater agreement of measures used in the study. This paper discusses the concept of agreement, highlighting its fundamental difference from correlation. Several examples demonstrate how to compute the kappa coefficient - a popular statistic for measuring agreement - both by hand and by using statistical software packages such as SAS and SPSS. Real study data are used to illustrate how to use and interpret this coefficient in clinical research and practice. The article concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the coefficient.

AB - Summary: In mental health and psychosocial studies it is often necessary to report on the between-rater agreement of measures used in the study. This paper discusses the concept of agreement, highlighting its fundamental difference from correlation. Several examples demonstrate how to compute the kappa coefficient - a popular statistic for measuring agreement - both by hand and by using statistical software packages such as SAS and SPSS. Real study data are used to illustrate how to use and interpret this coefficient in clinical research and practice. The article concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the coefficient.

KW - Correlation

KW - Interrater agreement

KW - Kappa coefficient

KW - Weighted kappa

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JO - Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry

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ER -

Kappa coefficient: a popular measure of rater agreement

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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