High inter-rater reliability in consensus diagnoses and overall assessment in the Asian Cohort for Alzheimer’s Disease Study

The Asian Cohort for Alzheimer's Disease (ACAD) study is a collaborative investigation of genetic and non-genetic risk factors for AD among Asian Americans and Canadians. Harmonization of diagnostic procedures across recruiting sites will be key to the dataset's efficacy. Forty-two participants who completed the consensus process across seven ACAD recruiting sites were re-reviewed by two further impartial raters. Cohen's Kappa coefficient was used to evaluate inter-rater agreement. The findings reveal the highest level of observed agreement at 88% and a Cohen's Kappa of 0.835, among site consensus participants and two levels of external review, affirming the reliability of our protocol. ACAD has developed a data collection and diagnostic process that allows consistency among sites that serve Asians speaking Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese languages.