Gordon Claire C, Bradtmiller Bruce
Anthropology Branch, Science & Advanced Technology Directorate, U.S. Army Natick Research, Development, and Engineering Center, Natick, Massachusetts 01760-5020.
Anthropology Research Project, Inc., Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387.
Am J Hum Biol. 1992;4(2):253-263. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.1310040210.
The adverse effects of interobserver error on morphometric population comparisons are well documented in the literature. While interobserver error can rarely be avoided, it can be minimized by having a single individual locate and mark relevant landmarks, by limiting the number of observers for each variable, and by reviewing repeated measures data daily to catch and correct measurer drift during data collection. In this study, two pairs of experts participated in interobserver error trials designed to pre-set observer error limits for use in the quality control of a large scale anthropometric survey. Repeatability data were also collected twice daily in the field and reviewed with the measurers. Interobserver errors obtained in the field were lower than those achieved by the experts for 27 of 30 dimensions. These results suggest that establishment of permissible interobserver error in advance of data collection and frequent review of repeated measurements during data collection can reduce the magnitude of interobserver error below that obtained by experts measuring in a laboratory setting. However, even differences of small magnitude can be serios when they are directional, and 17 of 30 dimensions exhibited statistically significant bias between measurers despite all quality control efforts. The magnitudes of interobserver error observed in this study have proven particularly useful in evaluating the biological relevance of statistically significant differences which are of relatively small magnitude.
观察者间误差对形态测量群体比较的不良影响在文献中已有充分记载。虽然观察者间误差很少能避免，但可以通过让单个个体定位并标记相关地标、限制每个变量的观察者数量以及每天审查重复测量数据以在数据收集期间发现并纠正测量者偏差来将其最小化。在本研究中，两对专家参与了观察者间误差试验，旨在预先设定观察者误差限度，以用于大规模人体测量调查的质量控制。重复性数据也在现场每天收集两次，并与测量者一起审查。在现场获得的观察者间误差在30个维度中的27个维度上低于专家获得的误差。这些结果表明，在数据收集之前建立允许的观察者间误差，并在数据收集期间频繁审查重复测量，可以将观察者间误差的幅度降低到低于在实验室环境中由专家测量所获得的幅度。然而，即使是小幅度的差异，如果具有方向性，也可能很严重，并且尽管进行了所有质量控制努力，30个维度中的17个维度在测量者之间仍表现出统计学上显著差异。在本研究中观察到的观察者间误差幅度已被证明在评估相对小幅度的统计学上显著差异的生物学相关性方面特别有用。
