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Examining the Level of Agreement between the Expert Opinions Issued by the Provincial Legal Medicine Commissions and the Central Legal Medicine Commission Regarding Cases of Financial Incapability Due to Dementia
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Reza Hajmanouchehri1   , AZAR TABESH 2, Mojgan Nikpour1 |
1- Legal Medicine Research Center, Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran
2- Legal Medicine Research Center, Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran , tabeshazar@yahoo.com |
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Abstract: (54 Views) |
Introduction:Considering the importance of issuing correct and valid legal medical expert opinions about the financial incapability due to dementia, This study aims to examine the level of agreement (LOA) between the expert opinions issued by the provincial legal medicine commissions and the central legal medicine commission and the effect of the use criterias such as the MMSE test, the neuroimaging, external consultations and the presence of a neurologist in expert meetings has been done on the LOA.
Methods: The present study was conducted on 122 cases of people claiming financial incapability due to dementia referred to the central medical commission from September 2022 to September 2023. To examine the LOA of expert opinions issued by Cohen's kappa coefficient ,to analyze data from descriptive statistics methods and to investigate the relationship between some criteria on the LOA, logistic regression was used.
Results: There is a good agreement with the Kappa coefficient of 0.626 between the expert opinions issued regarding the financial incapability or the financial capability in the last commission held in the provinces and the Central Commission, and there is a good agreement with the Kappa coefficient of 0.681 between the expert opinions issued regarding the time of onset of financial incapability. In 76.2% of cases, there was no MMSE test, 77.8% of external consultations, 24.6% of neuroimaging. The three variables have a significant and positive effect on the LOAs made.
Conclusion: Although the LOA in the expert opinions issued between the last commission held in the province and the central commission is good, the agreement between the interrater should be relied on as a reliable. Therefore, the use of standard instruction, the use of new psychometric tools for more accurate diagnosis of the mental capacity of patients, and the continuous training of psychiatrists and psychologists are necessary. |
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| Keywords: Dementia, Reliability, and Financial Incapability |
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Type of Article: Research Article |
Subject:
Forensic Psychiatry
Received: 2024/07/23 | Revised: 2024/10/23 | Accepted: 2024/10/21
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