Matters arising: methodological issues on evaluating agreement between medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy by Cohen’s kappa analysis
Abstract Background The purpose of this article is to discuss the statistical methods for agreement analysis used in Richelle’s article (BMC Med Educ 22:335, 2022). The authors investigated the attitudes of final-year medical students regarding substance use during pregnancy and identified the facto...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMC
2023-02-01
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| Series: | BMC Medical Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04071-0 |
| _version_ | 1797864463017181184 |
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| author | Tianfei Yu Lei Yang Xinjie Jiang Shuli Shao Wei Sha Ming Li |
| author_facet | Tianfei Yu Lei Yang Xinjie Jiang Shuli Shao Wei Sha Ming Li |
| author_sort | Tianfei Yu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background The purpose of this article is to discuss the statistical methods for agreement analysis used in Richelle’s article (BMC Med Educ 22:335, 2022). The authors investigated the attitudes of final-year medical students regarding substance use during pregnancy and identified the factors that influence these attitudes. Methods We found that Cohen’s kappa value for measuring the agreement between these medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy was questionable. In addition, we recommend using weighted kappa instead of Cohen’s kappa for agreement analysis at the presence of three categories. Results The agreement improved from “good” (Cohen’s kappa) to “very good” (weighted kappa) for medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy. Conclusion To conclude, we recognize that this does not significantly alter the conclusions of the Richelle et al. paper, but it is necessary to ensure that the appropriate statistical tools are used. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T22:52:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f367416d13804c728beda45f5108e09c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1472-6920 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T22:52:20Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Medical Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-f367416d13804c728beda45f5108e09c2023-03-22T11:36:46ZengBMCBMC Medical Education1472-69202023-02-012311310.1186/s12909-023-04071-0Matters arising: methodological issues on evaluating agreement between medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy by Cohen’s kappa analysisTianfei Yu0Lei Yang1Xinjie Jiang2Shuli Shao3Wei Sha4Ming Li5College of Life Science and Agriculture Forestry, Qiqihar UniversityCollege of Foreign Languages, Qiqihar UniversityCollege of Life Science and Agriculture Forestry, Qiqihar UniversityCollege of Life Science and Agriculture Forestry, Qiqihar UniversityCollege of Life Science and Agriculture Forestry, Qiqihar UniversityCollege of Computer and Control Engineering, Qiqihar UniversityAbstract Background The purpose of this article is to discuss the statistical methods for agreement analysis used in Richelle’s article (BMC Med Educ 22:335, 2022). The authors investigated the attitudes of final-year medical students regarding substance use during pregnancy and identified the factors that influence these attitudes. Methods We found that Cohen’s kappa value for measuring the agreement between these medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy was questionable. In addition, we recommend using weighted kappa instead of Cohen’s kappa for agreement analysis at the presence of three categories. Results The agreement improved from “good” (Cohen’s kappa) to “very good” (weighted kappa) for medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy. Conclusion To conclude, we recognize that this does not significantly alter the conclusions of the Richelle et al. paper, but it is necessary to ensure that the appropriate statistical tools are used.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04071-0Substance usePregnancyMedical studentsAttitudesAgreementCohen’s kappa |
| spellingShingle | Tianfei Yu Lei Yang Xinjie Jiang Shuli Shao Wei Sha Ming Li Matters arising: methodological issues on evaluating agreement between medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy by Cohen’s kappa analysis BMC Medical Education Substance use Pregnancy Medical students Attitudes Agreement Cohen’s kappa |
| title | Matters arising: methodological issues on evaluating agreement between medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy by Cohen’s kappa analysis |
| title_full | Matters arising: methodological issues on evaluating agreement between medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy by Cohen’s kappa analysis |
| title_fullStr | Matters arising: methodological issues on evaluating agreement between medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy by Cohen’s kappa analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Matters arising: methodological issues on evaluating agreement between medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy by Cohen’s kappa analysis |
| title_short | Matters arising: methodological issues on evaluating agreement between medical students’ attitudes towards drugs/alcohol use during pregnancy by Cohen’s kappa analysis |
| title_sort | matters arising methodological issues on evaluating agreement between medical students attitudes towards drugs alcohol use during pregnancy by cohen s kappa analysis |
| topic | Substance use Pregnancy Medical students Attitudes Agreement Cohen’s kappa |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04071-0 |
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