The joint protection behavior assessment: A reliability study

Objective. Of the various measures developed for studying persons with rheu matoid arthritis, only one that focuses on joint protection has undergone e xtensive testing the Joint Protection Behavior Assessment (JPBA). The purpo se of the present study was to examine the interater and intrarater reliabi lity of the JPBA. Method. Six healthy participants performed the JPBA under three test condit ions (uniformed, informed, completely guided joint protection behavior). Th e 18 test performances were videotaped and scored by nine independent rater s. Results. Analysis of these data showed that interrater reliability (intracl ass correlation coefficient [ICC]) was .90 or higher, and intrarater reliab ility was .95 or higher (ICC). The correlation between the JPBA and its two shortened versions was .95 or higher (ICC). Internal consistency was also high, with a coefficient alpha of 0.95 for the complpte JPBA. Kappa. values showed that for most subtasks, there was fair to excellent agreement betwe en raters and consistency of raters over time. Conclusion. Our data suggest that the complete JPBA has excellent clinimetr ic properties and that the shortened versions are adequate for clinical sit uations. Some improvements in the test manual suggested by the present stud y may further improve the measure. A repeat of this study under real-world circumstances would provide an estimate of JPBA reliability in clinical pra ctice.