Reproducibility and validity of maternal recall of pregnancy-related events

We assessed the reproducibility and validity of a questionnaire that asks mothers to recall pregnancy-related events from thirty or more years ago. Among 146 women who completed the questionnaire twice, responses were highly reproducible for pre-pregnancy height and weight (r = 0.95), pregnancy comp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEpidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 10; no. 6; p. 774
Main Authors Tomeo, C A, Rich-Edwards, J W, Michels, K B, Berkey, C S, Hunter, D J, Frazier, A L, Willett, W C, Buka, S L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.11.1999
Subjects
Aged
Female
Humans
Labor, Obstetric
Mental Recall
Middle Aged
Pregnancy
Reproducibility of Results
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:We assessed the reproducibility and validity of a questionnaire that asks mothers to recall pregnancy-related events from thirty or more years ago. Among 146 women who completed the questionnaire twice, responses were highly reproducible for pre-pregnancy height and weight (r = 0.95), pregnancy complications (r = 0.74), substance use (r = 0.80), preterm delivery (r = 0.82), birthweight (r = 0.94), and breastfeeding (r = 0.89). Among 154 women whose questionnaire responses were compared to data collected during their pregnancies, recall was highly accurate for height (r = 0.90), pre-pregnancy weight (r = 0.86), birthweight (r = 0.91), and smoking (sensitivity = 0.86, specificity = 0.94). These findings suggest that long-term maternal recall is both reproducible and accurate for many factors related to pregnancy and delivery.
ISSN:1044-3983
DOI:10.1097/00001648-199911000-00022