Abstract

CASTANON-MEJIA, Alicia; SANTOS-MARTINEZ, Luis-Efrén; JIMENEZ, Araceli  and  MONROY, María del Carmen. Interobserver concordance (reliability) in the measurement of vital signs at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases Ismael Cosío Villegas. Rev. Inst. Nal. Enf. Resp. Mex. [online]. 2006, vol.19, n.3, pp.190-200. ISSN 0187-7585.

Measurement of vital signs is done by the nursing staff in several areas of the hospital; it may guide some medical decisions. As the measurement of the signs is influenced by different biasses, we decided to evaluate the degree of concordance between the staff measuring these signs. Methods: Twenty seven nurses measured the vital signs of 54 patients with stable respiratory diseases. The nurses were blinded to the study's objective. Concordance was determined between three groups of nurses from the INER Ismael Cosío Villegas, with different rank and academic background (specialist, general, auxiliary); we used the interclass correlation coefficient and the Bland-Altman approach; p < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Patients were 51 ± 16 years old. The most frequent diagnosis were pulmonary tuberculosis (29.5%) and interstitial pneumonia (14.8%). The mean difference ± standard deviation of the difference (and the mean observed ± standard deviation) of the vital signs taken by the three groups of nurses were: Heart rate 0.148 ± 6.71 (83.29 ± 10.04), respiratory rate 0.197 ± 1.53 (23.69 ± 2.24), temperature 0.048 ± 0.204 (36.19 ± 0.33), systolic arterial pressure 1.35 ± 6.02 (114.75 ± 10.91), and diastolic arterial pressure 0.123 ± 6.12 (71.70 ± 8.25). The degree of agreement for the entire vital signs between the different groups of nurses (specialist-general, general-auxiliary and specialist-auxiliary) were between 0.69 and 0.89. Conclusion: Vital signs measurements by the three groups of nurses were concordant.

Keywords : Agreement; concordance; quality of care; Bland-Altman approach; reliability.

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