The Delphi method in rheumatology research: are we doing it right?

Content validation of the Nutritional Attention Assessment Instrument in Primary Health Care

“…However, the number of participants exceeded that observed in other surveys [56,57,59]. To minimize losses, reminders were sent out and deadlines were extended, even though the Delphi technique does not require a representative sample of participants [40,51,60]. The reduction in the number of experts between the rounds was not a factor of concern, since this difference does not affect quality or reliability, because we are dealing with a panel [51].…”

“…The main characteristics of this method are anonymity, which reduces the influence of factors such as academic or professional status, feedback of the group responses, and the possibility of using electronic means for consultation, facilitating the participation of experts from different locations, reducing costs and allowing all experts to express their opinion without interference of the other participants [39,40].…”

“…The inclusion criteria in the panel of experts were: being a nutritionist, not having participated in the previous stages of the study, working in PHC units or in the management of the municipal/ state/federal NA (Group 1); or be a nutritionist, working in teaching and/or investigation in the area of ANSC (Group 2). Therefore, experts from the core of F&N actions at PHC, with qualification and practical and/or scientific experience; they support the assessment of the instrument and give credibility to the validation [40,44].…”

“…For the Second Round, new emails were sent to the experts, containing: feedback report on the main results of the First Delphi Round and the profile of the participants; the theoretical foundation on the justifications provided in the First Round, to reiterate concepts and other constituent elements of the IAAN that, until then, were not clear to them and also as feedback to the suggestions presented [40]. The CI only with the items which consensus was not reached in the First Round.…”

Validación del diseño de una red de cooperación científico-tecnológica utilizando el coeficiente K para la selección de expertos

“…Para Cabero y Barroso (2013), el cálculo del "Coeficiente de competencia experta" se efectúa a partir de la opinión mostrada por el experto sobre su nivel de conocimiento acerca del problema de investigación, así como de las fuentes que le permiten argumentar el criterio establecido, generalmente literatura de corriente principal; ello evidencia la pertinencia del perfil del experto en correspondencia con el constructo a evaluar. Una vez identificado los expertos a involucrar en la evaluación de la propuesta, se considera el método o forma a través del cual se adelantará el juicio; resalta el método Delphi como técnica que permite llegar al consenso en un grupo de expertos que opinan sobre un asunto específico (Fernández-Ávila et al 2020;Mozuni y Jonas, 2017;Sinha et al 2011), además por su alcance en cuanto a las posibilidades para involucrar expertos de diferentes localidades y regiones.…”