2080 Judith Lumley Centre, School of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
J Hum Lact. 2021 May;37(2):242-250. doi: 10.1177/0890334421991071. Epub 2021 Feb 13.
Breast hypoplasia is one reason for insufficient milk supply. Case reports use wide intra-mammary width and certain breast appearances as markers of breast hypoplasia. However, the reliability of these variables has not been determined.
To test the (i) interrater and intrarater reliability of intra-mammary width measurement and interrater reliability of categorizing women's breasts into breast types, and (ii) feasibility and acceptability of study procedures for the participants.
This was a prospective, longitudinal, non-experimental design with survey and observational components of a convenience sample of early postpartum women ( = 31). Interrater and intrarater reliability were measured using intraclass correlation coefficient for agreement for intra-mammary width measurements. Interrater reliability was measured using weighted kappa for agreement for categorizing breast type. Feasibility and acceptability of study procedures were collected 1 month later.
Excellent intrarater and interrater reliability for the intra-mammary width measurement (ICC = 0.99, 95% CI [0.99, 0.997] and ICC = 0.88, 95% CI [0.74, 0.94], respectively) and fair interrater reliability for breast type categorization (k = 0.35, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.75]) with high level of agreement between raters (97%) were achieved. Proportions of participants agreeing to breast photography and acceptability of study procedures were 68% (21/31) and 100% (28/28) respectively.
The excellent reliability for the intra-mammary width measurement means it provides a useful measure for future research. Since the "fair" reliability of categorizing breast type was due to lack of breast shape range in our sample, future research could assess the breasts of women with different medical profiles.
乳房发育不良是乳汁供应不足的一个原因。病例报告将乳腺内的宽度和某些乳房外观作为乳房发育不良的标志物。然而，这些变量的可靠性尚未确定。
测试（i）乳腺内宽度测量的组内和组间可靠性以及将女性乳房分为乳房类型的组间可靠性，以及（ii）研究参与者的程序的可行性和可接受性。
这是一项前瞻性、纵向、非实验性设计，采用便利抽样的早期产后妇女（n=31）的调查和观察部分。使用组内相关系数测量乳腺内宽度测量的组内和组间可靠性。使用加权κ测量分类乳房类型的组间可靠性。1 个月后收集研究程序的可行性和可接受性。
乳腺内宽度测量具有极好的组内和组间可靠性（ICC=0.99，95%CI[0.99，0.997]和 ICC=0.88，95%CI[0.74，0.94]），以及分类乳房类型的适度组间可靠性（κ=0.35，95%CI[-0.05，0.75]），评分者之间具有高度一致性（97%）。同意乳房摄影的参与者比例和研究程序的可接受性分别为 68%（21/31）和 100%（28/28）。
乳腺内宽度测量的可靠性极好，这意味着它为未来的研究提供了有用的指标。由于我们的样本中缺乏乳房形状范围，分类乳房类型的“适度”可靠性，未来的研究可以评估具有不同医疗特征的女性的乳房。
