Introducing the Psychological Autopsy Methodology Checklist.
Suicide Life Threat Behav
; 51(4): 673-683, 2021 08.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33559215
ABSTRACT
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.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Lista de Checagem
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Suicide Life Threat Behav
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos