Inter-Rater Reliability of the Mealtime Scan+

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Long-Term Care Research

Background:

• The Mealtime Scan (MTS) is a tool for assessing dining environments in Long Term Care (LTC).
• MTS has been updated to MTS+ to ensure standardization and responsiveness to changes.
• This study focuses on the changes in MTS+ and its inter-rater reliability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview of the modifications in the new MTS+ tool.
• To describe the inter-rater reliability of the MTS+ tool.
• To evaluate the reliability of assessing physical, social, and relational dining environments.

Main Methods:

• The observational and scoring methods for dining environments were updated into MTS+.
• Two trained assessors evaluated inter-rater reliability through 45 observations across nine dining rooms in three LTC homes.
• Interclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was used to assess reliability.

Main Results:

• MTS+ demonstrated good reliability for orientation cues (ICC: 0.75), social environment (ICC: 0.78), and relational activities (ICC: 0.78).
• Reliability was poor for the physical environment (ICC: 0.48) and moderate for the overall dining quality rating (ICC: 0.67).

Conclusions:

• MTS+ is effective and practical for intervention studies, particularly when one assessor conducts repeat observations.
• Limitations exist in MTS+ reliability, especially for the physical environment assessment.
• Further assessor training may enhance the reliability of MTS+.