The Inter-Rater Reliability of the Observation Instrument for Assessing Pain in Elderly With Dementia: An Investigation in the Long-Term Care Setting.

Background And Purpose: The Observation Instrument for Assessing Pain in Elderly With Dementia (BISAD) was developed in Germany. The instrument demonstrated high inter-rater reliability values for the original French version. So far, there are no results to that effect in the Austrian long-term care setting available. The objective of this study was to investigate agreement and inter-rater reliability of BISAD in residents with dementia.

Methods: A quantitative multicenter-descriptive cross-sectional design with a convenience sample of 71 residents.

Results: Analysis of all eight items demonstrated fair to moderate concordance. Absolute agreement of the total value was 25.32%. Subtotals of the observation before mobilization was 52.11%, and during mobilization 32.39%.

Conclusion: The reliability analysis shows that the items are less reliable. Currently, BISAD does not make a reliable contribution to clinical decision making in the tested setting.