Inter-rater reliability of proxy simple symptom assessment scale between physician and nurse: a hospital-based palliative care team setting

Abstract

Symptom management in palliative care requires reliable symptom assessment. We assessed the inter-rater reliability of a simple proxy symptom-assessment scale using the Japanese version of the Support Team Assessment Schedule (STAS-J) in a hospital-based palliative care team (HPCT) setting. By doing this, we assessed symptoms in a series of consecutive patients at two university hospitals with certified HPCTs within 2 days of referral and 7 days after. A physician and nurse assessed 20 symptoms. In total, 120 patients were assessed within 2 days of referral and 92 patients at 7 days after referral. As a result, we find that the intra-class correlation coefficients were 0.02-0.89 at referral and 0.20-0.92 at 7 days after. The perfect concordance rates were 37-89% at referral and 53-96% at 7 days after. The perfect or +/-1 concordance rates were 71-97% at referral and 73-100% at 7 days after. In conclusion, the symptom item of the STAS-J had high inter-rater reliability.