Comparing dependent kappa coefficients obtained on multilevel data

Reliability and agreement are two notions of paramount importance in medical and behavioral sciences. They provide information about the quality of the measurements. When the scale is categorical, reliability and agreement can be quantified through different kappa coefficients. The present paper provides two simple alternatives to more advanced modeling techniques, which are not always adequate in case of a very limited number of subjects, when comparing several dependent kappa coefficients obtained on multilevel data. This situation frequently arises in medical sciences, where multilevel data are common. Dependent kappa coefficients can result from the assessment of the same individuals at various occasions or when each member of a group is compared to an expert, for example. The method is based on simple matrix calculations and is available in the R package “multiagree”. Moreover, the statistical properties of the proposed method are studied using simulations. Although this paper focuses on kappa coefficients, the method easily extends to other statistical measures.