How accurately do mothers recall prenatal visits and gestational age? A validation of Uruguayan survey data

Many household surveys collect mothers' retrospective reports of reproductive, maternal, and child health. However, few empirical exercises assess survey measurement error in these data, based on comparisons with administrative records. We provide evidence on the accuracy of maternal recall reg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDemographic research Vol. 43; pp. 1495 - 1508
Main Authors Colacce, Maira, Perazzo, Ivone, Vigorito, Andrea
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften 01.07.2020
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Subjects
Access control
Care and treatment
Child development
Children
Descriptive Finding
Gestational age
Health aspects
Health surveys
household interviews
household surveys
Households
Infants (Premature)
Mothers
Pregnancy
Pregnant women
premature births
Prenatal care
prenatal visits
Surveys
Sustainable development
uruguay
validation
vital statistics
weeks of gestation
Uruguay
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Summary:Many household surveys collect mothers' retrospective reports of reproductive, maternal, and child health. However, few empirical exercises assess survey measurement error in these data, based on comparisons with administrative records. We provide evidence on the accuracy of maternal recall regarding weeks of gestation, premature births, and the timing and number of prenatal visits. We compare the survey maternal recall and the vital statistics administrative records based on the 2013 Nutrition, Child Development and Health Survey (ENDIS) for Uruguay (2,963 children aged 0-3). We estimate measurement error and its determinants by using a set of probit models. Mothers tend to overestimate gestational weeks and the incidence of prematurity by 0.1 weeks and 2.4 percentage points, respectively. Differences are larger regarding the timeliness and sufficiency of prenatal visits (respectively, 17.0 and 14.4 pp). Discrepancies are associated with lower educational levels, the length of the recall period (child's age) and birth order. In general, our findings validate the use of survey data, although the identification of premature births and prenatal care sufficiency presents differences that could lead to errors in the evaluation of compliance with, for example, the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Since recall accuracy is negatively associated with maternal schooling, discrepancies could be larger in relatively less developed countries.
ISSN:1435-9871
1435-9871
DOI:10.4054/DemRes.2020.43.51