Reporting Errors in One-Week Diarrhoea Recall Surveys: Experience from a Prospective Study in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract

To estimate inaccuracy in a diarrhoea recall survey mothers of pre-school children in Teknaf, Bangladesh were interviewed every week from July 1980 through June 1983. Because the likelihood of an episode starting on any given day of the week should be equal, we were able to quantify any deviation observed. Results show an average of 34% less diarrhoea episodes reported prior to a 48-hour recall period in any week. The amount of reporting error was (a) directly related to the length of the recall period, and (b) inversely related to the severity of diarrhoea as indicated by presence of fever and frequency of motions. This analysis reveals that weekly diarrhoea recall surveys in Bangladesh underestimate severe diarrhoea cases by 20-22% and less severe cases by 42-44%. The findings also indicate that morbidity surveys based on lengthy recall are likely to mislead health planners with regard to the magnitude of the problem and the volume of resources required to combat it.

Acute diarrhea in hospitalized children of the municipality of juiz de fora, MG, Brazil: prevalence and risk factors associated with disease severity

“…Although the frequency and characteristics of vomiting and diarrheic episodes are important for the definition of disease severity (1,3) , such data were not recorded in over 20% of the files analyzed, their statistical analysis not being reliable in consequence.…”

Incidence of diarrhea: poor parental recall ability

“…It has already been noted that more frequent visits are associated with an increased number of diarrheal episodes [1,2] and that intervals longer than two days between visits may result in falsely decreased estimates of diarrheal episodes, which is possibly related to the informants' recall ability [7][8][9].…”

“…Parental information about the occurrence of diarrhea over the preceding 30 days compared to the findings of the research team Table 2. Week of diarrhea presentation as detected by the research team on visits performed every other day already been noted that diarrhea is such a common event in children living on poor social and hygienic conditions that their caretakers frequently consider it a usual fact on children's life and do not report it unless it presents an unusual severity that impairs child's welfare [9,11]. Interestingly, 60.6% of the children who had diarrhea over the preceding four weeks had suffered the episode in the two weeks previous to the visit and more than one-third of them on the immediate week before the visit, suggesting that reducing the interval between the visits to two or even one week would not increase significantly the reliability of data.…”

“…Furthermore, the definition of diarrhea and the time intervals necessary to define different diarrheal episodes are also important factors that may lead to imprecise estimates of incidence, duration and prevalence of the disease [1,[6][7][8][9].…”

Fatores de risco para internamento por diarréia aguda em menores de dois anos: estudo de caso-controle

“…A gravidade da doença diarréica, que determina a hospitalização, pode ser medida pelo número de evacuações, sendo considerado como diarréia grave um número superior a sete evacuações ao dia (Alam et al, 1989).…”