Interpretation of nonstress tests.

Five nonstress tests were interpreted by a national sample of obstetricians blinded to specific patient clinical data. The 169 questionnaires suitable for analysis showed that the reliability of the test interpretation, as measured by the kappa statistic, decreased with increasing number of categories of interpretation. Kappa values for two, three, and five categories of interpretation were 0.60, 0.39, and 0.36, respectively. The middle values in the three- and five-category methods of interpretation had very low levels of reliability. Kappa values as related to the age of the respondent or measurements of experience showed relatively small changes in reliability of interpretation.

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