Premium
Dependability and precision of anthropometric measures in a longitudinal field study in an Egyptian village
Author(s) -
Harrison Gail G.,
Galal Osman M.,
Ritenbaugh Cheryl,
Shaheen Farouk M.,
Wahba Saneya AbdelAzim,
Kirksey Avanelle,
Jerome Norge W.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.1310030508
Subject(s) - dependability , anthropometry , reliability (semiconductor) , variance (accounting) , variance components , statistics , construct (python library) , component (thermodynamics) , field (mathematics) , computer science , observational error , reliability engineering , psychology , mathematics , medicine , engineering , power (physics) , physics , business , accounting , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , thermodynamics , programming language
Reliability and its components, precision and dependability, are analyzed for a complex dataset involving longitudinal anthropometric measurements on subjects of varying ages in an Egyptian village setting. Results are compared with other published datasets. Technical error of measurement is similar to or compares favorably with other datasets for both adults and children. Overall reliability is strongly influenced by dependability coefficients, which are calculated in this analysis over relatively longer time periods (2 weeks for young children and longer for older individuals) than in other comparable datasets. It is evident that some components of the theoretical construct of imprecision, i.e., measurement error derived from variation over longer periods of time in factors contributing to accuracy, are actually captured in the analytical component of variance called undependability.