Case-Note Abstraction: A Methodological Substudy as Cautionary Tale

Abstract

A sample of 42 case notes of alcoholic patients were abstracted for 17 items by three different raters. Interrater agreement was generally rather low. Research based on case-note abstraction which does not report on abstraction reliabilities must therefore be viewed with some suspicion. It would be helpful if clinical material could more often be collected in a standardized manner.