Volume 43 - Article 51 | Pages 1495–1508  

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

By Maira Colacce, Ivone Perazzo, Andrea Vigorito

Abstract

Background: 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.

Objective: We provide evidence on the accuracy of maternal recall regarding weeks of gestation, premature births, and the timing and number of prenatal visits.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusions: 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.

Contribution: The main contribution of this paper lies in the assessment of measurement error levels arising from maternal reports of gestational age and prenatal visits for a relatively short recall period in a Latin American country. Although previous studies estimate measurement errors using administrative records linked to maternal recall data, this is the only study that is based on a nationally representative survey.

Author’s Affiliation

• Maira Colacce - Universidad de la República, Uruguay EMAIL
• Ivone Perazzo - Universidad de la República, Uruguay EMAIL
• Andrea Vigorito - Universidad de la República, Uruguay EMAIL

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality in Uruguay from 2020 to 2022
Volume 51 - Article 29    | Keywords: COVID-19, excess mortality, life expectancy, Uruguay

The short- and long-term determinants of fertility in Uruguay
Volume 51 - Article 10    | Keywords: fertility, panel data, stages of female reproductive life, time series, Uruguay

Using household death questions from surveys to assess adult mortality in periods of health crisis: An application for Peru, 2018–2022
Volume 51 - Article 8    | Keywords: adult mortality, data quality, household surveys, Peru

The big decline: Lowest-low fertility in Uruguay (2016–2021)
Volume 50 - Article 16    | Keywords: adolescent fertility, birth order, fertility, Latin America, ultra-low fertility, Uruguay

Changes in birth seasonality in Spain: Data from 1863–1870 and 1900–2021
Volume 49 - Article 35    | Keywords: Box-Jenkins method, Cosinor analysis, Fourier analysis, season of birth, seasonality, time series, vital statistics