Strengths and limitations of computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI) for nutrition data collection in rural Kenya

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 1; p. e0210050
• Main Authors: Lamanna, Christine, Hachhethu, Kusum, Chesterman, Sabrina, Singhal, Gaurav, Mwongela, Beatrice, Ng'endo, Mary, Passeri, Silvia, Farhikhtah, Arghanoon, Kadiyala, Suneetha, Bauer, Jean-Martin, Rosenstock, Todd S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01.01.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Agroforestry; Bias; Biology and Life Sciences; Care and treatment; Cell Phone; Cell phones; Cellular telephones; Child; Children; Confidence intervals; Data collection; Diet; Dietary supplements; Drought; Engineering and Technology; Feasibility studies; Female; Food and nutrition; Food groups; Food security; Health aspects; Households; Human nutrition; Humans; Infants; Interviews as Topic - methods; Kenya; Male; Malnutrition; Meals; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Nutrition; Nutrition Surveys - methods; Nutrition Surveys - statistics & numerical data; Nutritional Status; Patient outcomes; People and Places; Population; Reproducibility of Results; Research and Analysis Methods; Rural Population - statistics & numerical data; Subscriptions; Undernutrition; Voice recognition; Wireless telephones; Young Adult; Kenya; United Kingdom > UK; Italy
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210050

Despite progress in fighting undernutrition, Africa has the highest rates of undernutrition globally, exacerbated by drought and conflict. Mobile phones are emerging as a tool for rapid, cost effective data collection at scale in Africa, as mobile phone subscriptions and phone ownership increase at the highest rates globally. To assess the feasibility and biases of collecting nutrition data via computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI) to mobile phones, we measured Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) and Minimum Acceptable Diet for Infants and Young Children (MAD) using a one-week test-retest study on 1,821 households in Kenya. Accuracy and bias were assessed by comparing individual scores and population prevalence of undernutrition collected via CATI with data collected via traditional face-to-face (F2F) surveys. We were able to reach 75% (n = 1366) of study participants via CATI. Women's reported nutrition scores did not change with mode for MDD-W, but children's nutrition scores were significantly higher when measured via CATI for both the dietary diversity (mean increase of 0.45 food groups, 95% confidence interval 0.34-0.56) and meal frequency (mean increase of 0.75 meals per day, 95% confidence interval 0.53-0.96) components of MAD. This resulted in a 17% higher inferred prevalence of adequate diets for infants and young children via CATI. Women without mobile-phone access were younger and had fewer assets than women with access, but only marginally lower dietary diversity, resulting in a small non-coverage bias of 1-7% due to exclusion of participants without mobile phones. Thus, collecting nutrition data from rural women in Africa with mobile phones may result in 0% (no change) to as much as 25% higher nutrition estimates than collecting that information in face-to-face interviews.