Development, content validity and inter-rater reliability testing of the Chronic Illness Management Implementation – Building Research Initiative Group: Chronic Illness Management and Adherence in Transplantation: An instrument to assess the level of chronic illness management implemented in solid organ transplant programmes

Introduction In this article we report the item generation, validity and inter-rater reliability testing of the Chronic Illness Management Implementation – Building Research Initiative Group: Chronic Illness Management and Adherence in Transplantation instrument. Methods The instrument was developed based on the World Health Organization’s Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions framework by the research team in consultation with a chronic illness management expert and a focus group of transplant nurses. Seven chronic illness management experts were used to assist in calculating the content validity index for each item and the total instrument. A pilot study was conducted in two transplant programmes to examine inter-rater reliability. Percent agreement by professionals working within the same centre was calculated by averaging the percent agreement on individual items. Results The instrument content validity index was 87%. The percentage agreement in both transplant programmes was 84.6% and 74.8%, indicating good inter-rater reliability. The final instrument consists of 55 items. Discussion The results are promising, suggesting its value as a tool to measure implementation of chronic illness management in transplant programmes.