Introducing the Psychological Autopsy Methodology Checklist

Objective Case-control psychological autopsy studies are the research standard for the postmortem, quantitative study of ongoing or recent risk factors for suicide. We aimed to develop a reliable checklist of methodological quality of these studies. Method We adapted items from a validated checklist to address general methodological elements and created novel items to address the unique aspects of psychological autopsy research to generate a 16-item checklist assessing reporting, external validity, internal validity, and power. We used percent agreement and kappa to evaluate inter-rater reliability of the items and overall checklist based on independent ratings of 26 case-control psychological autopsy studies conducted internationally. We also summed the items to generate overall quality ratings, assessing internal consistency with coefficient alpha (alpha). Results Inter-rater reliability for the overall checklist was high (percent agreement, 86.5%) and that based conservatively on kappa was substantial (kappa .71) whereas internal consistency was low (alpha = 0.56). The inter-rater reliability of the individual items showed acceptable to high agreement. Conclusion A novel checklist provides a reliable means to assess the methodological quality of specific elements of quantitative case-control psychological autopsy studies, providing detailed guidance in planning such studies. Lower internal consistency may limit its utility as a summary measure of study quality.

Automated summary

The objective of this study was to develop a reliable checklist for assessing the methodological quality of case-control psychological autopsy studies. The results showed high inter-rater reliability for the overall checklist, but low internal consistency. This novel checklist provides detailed guidance for planning such studies, although its utility as a summary measure of study quality may be limited due to the lower internal consistency.