Measuring group social interactions following acquired brain injury: an inter-rater reliability evaluation

ABSTRACT

Background

Social communication impairments following acquired brain injury (ABI) are well-documented. There is evidence that group interventions are beneficial but research into validated instruments to measure group outcomes is a new field of investigation.

Aims

This study reports on the inter-rater reliability of three established social communication measures for use with group interaction data: the Profile of Pragmatic Impairment in Communication (PPIC), the Behaviorally Referenced Rating System of Intermediate Social Skills (BRISS-R), the Adapted Measure of Participation in Conversation (MPC). Inter-rater reliability of the Interactional Network Tool (INT), a new digital tool designed for group interactional behaviours, is also evaluated.

Method

Thirty-one video samples of ABI group interactions were independently rated by two rater pairs using the four outcome measures. Inter-rater reliability was calculated using intra-class correlations (ICC).

Results

ICC estimates and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated for the different measures. The measures showed differential sensitivity. Rater agreement on the MPC interaction (ICC = 0.77) and transaction (ICC = 0.74) scales was moderate to good. The INT initiation frequencies (ICC = 0.83) were moderate to excellent and the INT response frequencies (ICC = 0.69) were poor to good. Poor to moderate reliability was achieved on the BRISS-R PCSS (ICC = 0.49) and PDBS (ICC = 0.50) scale and PPIC findings were moderate but showed presence of skew.

Conclusion

Acceptable reliability was achieved on two measures of participation (MPC and INT). The INT shows promise as a new method to characterise interactions and detect change in group communication behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Brain injury
• rehabilitation
• rating scales
• outcome measurement
• social networks
• group

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Adam Searle of TGC Consulting Ltd for his support with the INT, and Anthony Geffen and the team at Atlantic Productions for their advice on the filming protocol.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

Susan Howell is supported by a postdoctoral award from the Economic and Social Research Council [grant reference ES/T008504/1].