The authors state in this paper that the Consultation and Relational Empathy(CARE) Measure has a test-retest correlation at 3 months of 0.572. In fact the study they quote did not examine test-retest, it examined the correlation between CARE score at initial consultation and patients perceptions of therapist empathy at the end of the 3 month period. In unpublished work on test-retest reliability of the CARE Measure at patient level in the primary care setting I have found a correlation of 0.7 at 1 month follow-up.
Reliability of the CARE Measure
3 September 2007
The authors state in this paper that the Consultation and Relational Empathy(CARE) Measure has a test-retest correlation at 3 months of 0.572. In fact the study they quote did not examine test-retest, it examined the correlation between CARE score at initial consultation and patients perceptions of therapist empathy at the end of the 3 month period. In unpublished work on test-retest reliability of the CARE Measure at patient level in the primary care setting I have found a correlation of 0.7 at 1 month follow-up.
Stewart Mercer
Competing interests
I developed and validated the CARE Measure