A goodness-of-fit approach to inference procedures for the kappa statistic: confidence interval construction, significance-testing and sample size estimation.

We propose a new procedure for constructing a confidence interval about the kappa statistic in the case of two raters and a dichotomous outcome. The procedure is based on a chi-square goodness-of-fit test as applied to a model frequently used for clustered binary data. The procedure provides coverage levels that are accurate in samples of smaller size than those required for other procedures. The procedure also has use for significance-testing and the planning of corresponding sample size requirements.