Abstract

Background: In 2013, we developed a scale to evaluate the abstracts of the congresses of the Society of Surgeons of Chile (SOCICH). Objective: To determine internal consistency and interobserver reliability of a scale to evaluate conference abstracts. Material and Methods: Reliability study. Twelve surgeons were trained virtually for 8 hours, to apply the scale. Once the training was finished, they were sent a questionnaire to evaluate the contents of the training, and several summaries-cases to be evaluated with the aforementioned scale. Descriptive statistics were applied, then the degree of agreement between observers was estimated for each item of the scale. Subsequently, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was evalua-ted, using a mixed two-factor model where the effects of the evaluators are random and the items are fixed, using a definition of absolute agreement. In addition, the internal consistency of the items was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha, considering 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results: After analyzing the measurements of the 9 items by the 12 observers, it was verified that the ICC was 0.871; with a 95% CI of 0.700; 0.965. The internal consistency value was 0.7 considering the 9 items, it is not recommended to delete any item. Conclusions: The scale has good internal consistency and interobserver reliability. The-refore, it can be considered as reliable instrument to be used in the evaluation of abstracts for congresses.