Inter-rater Reliability of the Individual Risk Assessment (ERIN) Method

Abstract

ERIN is an observational method developed for non-expert personnel to assess the exposure to risk factors related to musculoskeletal disorders. Since its initial publication, its use has gradually spread in Latin American countries and other regions. However, few reliability studies of the method have been reported. The purpose of this work was to determine the inter-rater reliability of the ERIN method. Thirty-nine raters (physiotherapists) evaluated eight tasks from video recordings. Each task was evaluated simultaneously while the video was projected in a room. The inter-rater reliability of the categorical variables was evaluated using the statistical index kappa Fleiss (K), while for the continuous variable (total risk), the intraclass correlation coefficient ICC (2.1) was used. Sixteen categorical variables were analyzed. In eight, the agreement was moderate, the K values varied between 0.45 and 0.59, and in the other eight variables, the agreement was substantial; the K values varied between 0.61 and 0.80. When unifying the four ERIN risk levels into “No risk” (low and medium risk levels) and “Risk” (high and very high-risk levels), the agreement was almost perfect (K = 0.86). A good agreement was obtained for the total risk variable; the average value was ICC (2,1) = 0.62. The results of this study indicate that the ERIN method has acceptable levels of inter-rater reliability.