Interexaminer Agreement for Readings of Dip Slide Tests for Salivary Mutans Streptococci and Lactobacilli

Abstract

This study reports the interexaminer agreement of three pairs of evaluators of salivary dip slide tests for mutans streptococci and lactobacilli. 717 Carie-screen® SM and Bactotest® LB dip slides were available for assessment by 2 dentists and 1 dental hygienist. A single calibration session was held prior to the onset of the study. Each dip slide was read once by each examiner independently. Among the three pairs of examiners Pearson R values ranged from 0.84 to 0.90 for Cariescreen and from 0.78 to 0.87 for Bactotest. Kappa statistic values ranged from 0.56 to 0.61 for Cariescreen and from 0.70 to 0.74 for Bactotest. The range of agreement was from 72.2 to 76.9% for Cariescreen and from 86.4 to 88.3% for Bactotest. The majority of disagreements were of one category in magnitude, though there were a few disagreements of greater magnitude. This study found moderately strong agreement among the three examiners; it suggests that multiple examiners of dip slide tests carefully calibrated initially and periodically to ensure a high level of agreement.

Efficacy of a dip slide test for mutans streptococci in caries risk assessment

“…This result is in agreement with other studies (13,33,34) that verified the finding that reproducibility declines as the number of scores increases. This result is in agreement with other studies (13,33,34) that verified the finding that reproducibility declines as the number of scores increases.…”

“…Regarding the interexaminer agreement, the kappa value for the count classification (kΩ0.79) was higher than the kappa value for the 6-score classification (kΩ0.55), which was expected due to the grouping process of the scores. This result is in agreement with other studies (13,33,34) that verified the finding that reproducibility declines as the number of scores increases.…”

“…Some examples of the simplified technique are the dip slide test (9)(10)(11) and the strip mutans test (12). Because of the simplification of the technique and the classification of results, these microbiological tests are marketable and easily applied by personnel with no special training (13). Because of the simplification of the technique and the classification of results, these microbiological tests are marketable and easily applied by personnel with no special training (13).…”

“…Results obtained from simplified tests were correlated with results from the conventional technique (9,11). Because of the simplification of the technique and the classification of results, these microbiological tests are marketable and easily applied by personnel with no special training (13).…”

Reprodutibilidade de um teste microbiológico para estreptococos do grupo mutans

“…ADAIR et al 1 , em 1994, ao estudarem a concordância interexaminador, mostraram que houve mais facilidade na interpretação dos resultados, quando se utilizaram 3 escores (pertencentes ao quadro de avaliação dos resultados do teste microbiológico BACTOTEST ® ) ao invés dos 6 escores, propostos pelo outro teste, CARIESCREEN ® . O mesmo foi observado por MURTOMAA et al 19 , em 1987: o uso de três escores, ao invés de quatro, promoveu o aumento da concordância, nas avaliações realizadas pela equipe de examinadores.…”