The INTERMED Japanese version: Inter-rater reliability and internal consistency

Objective: The intent of this study was to establish the inter-rater reliability and the internal consistency of the Japanese version of the INTERMED. Methods: The study included a series of patients referred to psychiatric consultation service or palliative care service. The study participants were independently scored using the INTERMED by the raters. Results: The INTERMED-Japanese version had high inter-rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.98) and high internal consistency (alpha=.89). All four domains (biological, psychological, social, and health care domains) were positively correlated. Based on a cutoff score of 20/21, a kappa of 0.79 was found. Conclusions: The INTERMED is an easy and useful proactive biopsychosocial screening tool, which could be a reasonable utility under the current Japanese health care situations. Future studies focusing on the INTERMED utility in improving health care delivery for patients with complex biopsychosocial care needs has to be demonstrated in various medical settings in Japan. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.