RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Reproducibility of the Sputum Color Evaluation Depends on the Category of Caregivers
JF Respiratory Care
FD American Association for Respiratory Care
SP 936
OP 942
DO 10.4187/respcare.04547
VO 61
IS 7
A1 Gregory Reychler
A1 Emmanuel Andre
A1 Laurence Couturiaux
A1 Kinga Hohenwarter
A1 Giuseppe Liistro
A1 Thierry Pieters
A1 Annie Robert
YR 2016
UL http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/61/7/936.abstract
AB BACKGROUND: Sputum production and purulence were proposed as criteria for justifying the use of antimicrobial agents. The Sputum Color Chart was developed and validated to standardize purulence of sputum evaluation. The aim of this study was to observe the reproducibility of the Sputum Color Chart from different categories of health caregivers.METHODS: The color of 10 sputum samples was evaluated using photographs for intra- and inter-reliability. The observation was repeated 3 times. Eighteen volunteers from 6 categories of health caregivers (student in physiotherapy, senior chest physiotherapist, junior resident in pulmonology, medical microbiologist, pulmonologist, and general practitioner) were investigated.RESULTS: Poor inter-rater reliability was observed for all categories with the exception of senior chest physiotherapists. The best intra-rater reliability was observed for microbiologists and senior chest physiotherapists. We found a great proportion (>40%) of important discrepancies in 2 categories (junior pulmonologist and general practitioner). The proportion of non-discrepancy between evaluators varied between 10 and 40%, depending on the category.CONCLUSIONS: Even if the Sputum Color Chart is a useful tool for the clinician in the context of clinical deterioration, it presents non-uniform reliability regarding the caregivers and their category.