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Citation
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Conner KR, Chapman BP, Beautrais AL, Brent DA, Bridge JA, Conwell Y, Falter T, Holbrook A, Schneider B. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub. |
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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: Case-control psychological autopsy studies are the research standard for the postmortem, quantitative study of ongoing or recent risk factors for suicide. We aimed to develop a reliable checklist of methodological quality of these studies.
METHOD: We adapted items from a validated checklist to address general methodological elements and created novel items to address the unique aspects of psychological autopsy research to generate a 16-item checklist assessing reporting, external validity, internal validity, and power. We used percent agreement and kappa to evaluate inter-rater reliability of the items and overall checklist based on independent ratings of 26 case-control psychological autopsy studies conducted internationally. We also summed the items to generate overall quality ratings, assessing internal consistency with coefficient alpha (α).
RESULTS: Inter-rater reliability for the overall checklist was high (percent agreement, 86.5%) and that based conservatively on kappa was substantial (κ.71) whereas internal consistency was low (α = 0.56). The inter-rater reliability of the individual items showed acceptable to high agreement.
CONCLUSION: A novel checklist provides a reliable means to assess the methodological quality of specific elements of quantitative case-control psychological autopsy studies, providing detailed guidance in planning such studies. Lower internal consistency may limit its utility as a summary measure of study quality.
Language: en |