Lishman Brain Injury Unit, Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AZ (e-mail: s.fleminger{at}lop.kcl.ac.uk)
Lishman Brain Injury Unit, Maudsley Hospital, London
Grafton Manor, Towcester
Robert Ferguson Unit, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
Kemsley Division, St Andrews Hospital, Northampton
Campbell Unit, Hospital Campus, Milton Keynes
AIMS AND METHOD
The Health of the Nation Outcome Scale for Acquired Brain Injury (HoNOSABI) is a relatively new outcome measure designed to assess the neuropsychiatric sequelae of brain damage. This study investigated the interrater reliability of this scale. Fifty patients with traumatic brain injury receiving rehabilitation were each rated twice on the HoNOSABI, by two different raters. There were 24 raters in total.
RESULTS
Weighted kappa values ranged from 0.43 to 0.84 and intraclass correlation coefficients from 0.58 to 0.97 for the ten items assessed.This indicated that agreement was moderate to substantial for all items.
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
The scales consistently measured the items of interest across different raters. This indicates that HoNOSABI is a reliable outcome measure when applied by different raters in routine clinical practice.