Table 3.
Questionnaire validation on 77 patients affected by syncope and other forms of impaired consciousness
| Items | Syncope expert (# Yes/# No) |
Patient (# Yes/# No) |
Inter-rater agreement, kappa statistics (SE)a | p valueb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presentation | ||||
| 1–2. Syncope/pre-syncope | 59/18 | 56/21 | 0.90 (0.11) | <0.0001 |
| 3. Onset, duration, recovery | 62/9 | 61/10 | 0.21 (0.12) | 0.04 |
| 4. Similar to previous episodes | 50/16 | 50/16 | 0.67 (0.12) | < 0.0001 |
| 5. Time to stop and lie/sit down | 38/33 | 42/29 | 0.67 (0.12) | < 0.0001 |
| Context | ||||
| 6. Presence of witnesses | 46/28 | 50/24 | 0.70 (0.11) | < 0.0001 |
| 7. Location | 52/25 | 52/24 | 0.69 (0.11) | < 0.0001 |
| 8. Contemporary actions/position | ||||
| Standing | 40 | 32 | ||
| Sitting | 21 | 24 | 0.58 | < 0.0001 |
| Lying | 2 | 4 | ||
| Standing up | 7 | 6 | ||
| Sequelae | ||||
| 10. Injuries | 29/40 | 31/38 | 0.88 (0.12) | < 0.0001 |
| 11. Access to emergency room | 26/43 | 26/43 | 1.00 (0.12) | < 0.0001 |
| 12. Hospitalization | 13/57 | 14/56 | 0.68 (0.12) | < 0.0001 |
aKappa agreement in the range 0.21–0.40 is considered fair, 0.41–0.60 moderate, 0.61–0.80 substantial, 0.81– 1.00 almost perfect
bZ statistic p values (Stata/SE 11.1, StataCorp LP, TX, USA)
SE = standard error