A test of the stranger-interviewer norm in the Dominican Republic

Sana, Mariano; Stecklov, Guy; Weinreb, Alexander

doi:10.1080/00324728.2016.1139740

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…CBVs may also be more effective in recording neonatal and infant deaths than FPH interviewers, because they are community members, who may hear about such events through social and conversational networks [ 34 , 35 ]. FPH interviewers, on the other hand, are most commonly outsiders and strangers to whom respondents may be reluctant to disclose such private, emotional events [ 36 , 37 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using community-based reporting of vital events to monitor child mortality: Lessons from rural Ghana

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundReducing neonatal and child mortality is a key component of the health-related sustainable development goal (SDG), but most low and middle income countries lack data to monitor child mortality on an annual basis. We tested a mortality monitoring system based on the continuous recording of pregnancies, births and deaths by trained community-based volunteers (CBV).Methods and findingsThis project was implemented in 96 clusters located in three districts of the Northern Region of Ghana. Community-based volunteers (CBVs) were selected from these clusters and were trained in recording all pregnancies, births, and deaths among children under 5 in their catchment areas. Data collection lasted from January 2012 through September 2013. All CBVs transmitted tallies of recorded births and deaths to the Ghana Birth and deaths registry each month, except in one of the study districts (approximately 80% reporting). Some events were reported only several months after they had occurred. We assessed the completeness and accuracy of CBV data by comparing them to retrospective full pregnancy histories (FPH) collected during a census of the same clusters conducted in October-December 2013. We conducted all analyses separately by district, as well as for the combined sample of all districts. During the 21-month implementation period, the CBVs reported a total of 2,819 births and 137 under-five deaths. Among the latter, there were 84 infant deaths (55 neonatal deaths and 29 post-neonatal deaths). Comparison of the CBV data with FPH data suggested that CBVs significantly under-estimated child mortality: the estimated under-5 mortality rate according to CBV data was only 2/3 of the rate estimated from FPH data (95% Confidence Interval for the ratio of the two rates = 51.7 to 81.4). The discrepancies between the CBV and FPH estimates of infant and neonatal mortality were more limited, but varied significantly across districts.ConclusionsIn northern Ghana, a community-based data collection systems relying on volunteers did not yield accurate estimates of child mortality rates. Additional implementation research is needed to improve the timeliness, completeness and accuracy of such systems. Enhancing pregnancy monitoring, in particular, may be an essential step to improve the measurement of neonatal mortality.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using community-based reporting of vital events to monitor child mortality: Lessons from rural Ghana

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The survey project also aims data collection at a lower cost by working with female data collectors known as resident enumerators (REs) who live in or near the sampled enumeration areas with a minimum qualification of high school completion (Hawes et al 2017;Zimmerman, OlaOlorun, and Radloff 2015). Employing local REs is one of the most unique features of PMA2020, since most large-scale surveys collect data using 'stranger-interviewers' (Sana, Stecklov, and Weinreb 2016;Weinreb 2006), whereas electronic data collection with mobile technologies using phones or tablets has increased (Paudel et al 2013). Since its inception in 2013, over 40 surveys have been conducted in 11 countries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring fertility through mobile‒phone based household surveys: Methods, data quality, and lessons learned from PMA2020 surveys

Choi

Zachary

2018

DemRes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…While the vast majority of research on this topic has focused on demographic characteristics of interviewers, there are other characteristics of interviewers that have been studied less frequently, such as the degree of familiarity between survey interviewer and respondent. The limited research on interviewer–respondent familiarity has shown that it affects survey responses 11–13…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, understanding of local customs may improve communication between interviewer and respondent 13. The relatively limited testing on the relationship between interviewer–respondent familiarity and survey responses suggests that data quality may improve with a greater degree of familiarity 11–13. But this relationship has seldom been examined, and research suggests that the impact of interviewer–respondent familiarity likely varies by context and over time 12 13…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between interviewer-respondent familiarity and family planning outcomes in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a repeat cross-sectional analysis

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ObjectivesThe typical approach of survey data collection is to use interviewers who are not from the study site and do not know the participants, yet the implications of this approach on data quality have seldom been investigated. We examine the relationship between interviewer–respondent familiarity and selected family planning outcomes, and whether this relationship changes over time between 2015 and 2016.SettingWe use data from the Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 Project in Kongo Central Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.ParticipantsParticipants include representative samples of women of reproductive ages (15 to 49), 1565 interviewed in 2015 and 1668 in 2016. The study used a two-stage cluster design: first randomly selecting enumeration areas (EAs), then randomly selecting households within each EA.DesignWe first identify individual characteristics associated with familiarity between RE and respondent. Next, we examine the relationship between RE–respondent acquaintance and family planning outcomes. Finally, we use two waves of data to examine whether this relationship changes over time between 2015 and 2016.ResultsIn multivariate analysis, interviewer–respondent acquaintance is significantly associated with last birth unintended (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.17 to 3.13) and reported infertility in 2015 (OR 2.26, 95% CI 1.03 to 4.95); and any contraceptive use (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.28), traditional contraceptive use (OR 1.79, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.89), reported infidelity (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.02 to 3.49) and age at first sex (coefficient −0.48, 95% CI −0.96 to −0.01) in 2016. The impact of acquaintance on survey responses changed over time for any contraceptive use (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.33 to 3.30).ConclusionsThe standard in many large-scale surveys is to use interviewers from outside the community. Our results show that interviewer–respondent acquaintance is associated with a range of family planning outcomes; therefore, we recommend that the approach to hiring interviewers be examined and reconsidered in survey data collection efforts.

show abstract

A test of the stranger-interviewer norm in the Dominican Republic

Cited by 15 publications

References 19 publications

Using community-based reporting of vital events to monitor child mortality: Lessons from rural Ghana

Using community-based reporting of vital events to monitor child mortality: Lessons from rural Ghana

Measuring fertility through mobile‒phone based household surveys: Methods, data quality, and lessons learned from PMA2020 surveys

The relationship between interviewer-respondent familiarity and family planning outcomes in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a repeat cross-sectional analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About