Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33706710›Full record

ArticleBMC medical research methodology2021

Measuring test-retest reliability (TRR) of AMSTAR provides moderate to perfect agreement - a contribution to the discussion of the importance of TRR in relation to the psychometric properties of assessment tools.

Stefanie Bühn, Peggy Ober, Tim Mathes, Uta Wegewitz, Anja Jacobs, Dawid Pieper

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Stefanie BühnInstitute for Research in Operative Medicine, Faculty of Health - School of Medicine, Witten/Herdecke University, Ostmerheimer Str. 200, Building 38, 51109, Cologne, Germany. Stefanie.Buehn@uni-wh.de.
Peggy OberLIFE Child, LIFE Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, Leipzig University, Ph.-Rosenthal-Str. 27, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
Tim MathesInstitute for Research in Operative Medicine, Faculty of Health - School of Medicine, Witten/Herdecke University, Ostmerheimer Str. 200, Building 38, 51109, Cologne, Germany.
Uta WegewitzFederal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Nöldnerstr. 40-42, 10317, Berlin, Germany.
Anja JacobsFederal Joint Committee (Healthcare), Gutenbergstraße 13, 10587, Berlin, Germany.
Dawid PieperInstitute for Research in Operative Medicine, Faculty of Health - School of Medicine, Witten/Herdecke University, Ostmerheimer Str. 200, Building 38, 51109, Cologne, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundSystematic Reviews (SRs) can build the groundwork for evidence-based health care decision-making. A sound methodological quality of SRs is crucial. AMSTAR (A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews) is a widely used tool developed to assess the methodological quality of SRs of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Research shows that AMSTAR seems to be valid and reliable in terms of interrater reliability (IRR), but the test retest reliability (TRR) of AMSTAR has never been investigated. In our study we investigated the TRR of AMSTAR to evaluate the importance of its measurement and contribute to the discussion of the measurement properties of AMSTAR and other quality assessment tools.

methodsSeven raters at three institutions independently assessed the methodological quality of SRs in the field of occupational health with AMSTAR. Between the first and second ratings was a timespan of approximately two years. Answers were dichotomized, and we calculated the TRR of all raters and AMSTAR items using Gwet's AC1 coefficient. To investigate the impact of variation in the ratings over time, we obtained summary scores for each review.

resultsAMSTAR item 4 (Was the status of publication used as an inclusion criterion?) provided the lowest median TRR of 0.53 (moderate agreement). Perfect agreement of all reviewers was detected for AMSTAR-item 1 with a Gwet's AC1 of 1, which represented perfect agreement. The median TRR of the single raters varied between 0.69 (substantial agreement) and 0.89 (almost perfect agreement). Variation of two or more points in yes-scored AMSTAR items was observed in 65% (73/112) of all assessments.

conclusionsThe high variation between the first and second AMSTAR ratings suggests that consideration of the TRR is important when evaluating the psychometric properties of AMSTAR.. However, more evidence is needed to investigate this neglected issue of measurement properties. Our results may initiate discussion of the importance of considering the TRR of assessment tools. A further examination of the TRR of AMSTAR, as well as other recently established rating tools such as AMSTAR 2 and ROBIS (Risk Of Bias In Systematic reviews), would be useful.

Indexed as

Research ReportBiasHumansPsychometricsReproducibility of ResultsSystematic Reviews as TopicAMSTARPsychometric propertiesQuality assessment toolReliabilitySystematic reviewsTest-retest-reliability

Identifiers

PMID33706710
PMCPMC7953720

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.