Revisiting Retrospective Chart Review: An Evaluation of Nursing Home Palliative and End-of-Life Care Research

Abstract

Objective: Retrospective chart review is a popular method of data collection in palliative and end-of-life care research. This paper provides an evaluation of the reliability and validity of this method in the long-term care home-based palliative and end-of-life care research literature. Methods: Eight criteria were used to critically evaluate the reliability and validity of the retrospective chart review data collection methods in (n=13) studies meeting inclusion criteria. Results: Only two criteria: defining both the important variables, and inclusion and exclusion criteria, which largely demonstrate validity, were consistently well described in this body of literature. However, the criteria used to mainly demonstrate the reliability of the method, especially data abstractors’ monitoring and blinding, and testing for inter-rater reliability, were not well addressed. Conclusion: Overall, there was a limited description of the measures used for evaluating the validity, and especially the reliability of the retrospective chart review method included in the long-term care home-based, palliative care literature. As such, readers should proceed with caution when using this source of literature to inform palliative care research and practice, and carefully consider the inclusion of the measures of validity and reliability. Additionally, palliative care researchers should carefully consider the source of data as well as an instructional guideline when engaging in retrospective chart reviews.