Reporting Errors in Siblings’ Survival Histories and Their Impact on Adult Mortality Estimates: Results From a Record Linkage Study in Senegal

Abstract

Estimates of adult mortality in countries with limited vital registration (e.g., sub-Saharan Africa) are often derived from information about the survival of a respondent’s siblings. We evaluated the completeness and accuracy of such data through a record linkage study conducted in Bandafassi, located in southeastern Senegal. We linked at the individual level retrospective siblings’ survival histories (SSH) reported by female respondents (n = 268) to prospective mortality data and genealogies collected through a health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS). Respondents often reported inaccurate lists of siblings. Additions to these lists were uncommon, but omissions were frequent: respondents omitted 3.8 % of their live sisters, 9.1 % of their deceased sisters, and 16.6 % of their sisters who had migrated out of the DSS area. Respondents underestimated the age at death of the siblings they reported during the interview, particularly among siblings who had died at older ages (≥45 years). Restricting SSH data to person-years and events having occurred during a recent reference period reduced list errors but not age and date errors. Overall, SSH data led to a 20 % underestimate of 45q15 relative to HDSS data. Our study suggests new quality improvement strategies for SSH data and demonstrates the potential use of HDSS data for the validation of “unconventional” demographic techniques.

Death and Desirability: Retrospective Reporting of Unintended Pregnancy After a Child’s Death

“…That is, there are probably a non-negligible number of instances in which women do not report the pregnancies or births of children who have died, meaning that the true level of child death in our data is likely underestimated (Helleringer et al 2014). However, most research suggests that underreporting of child deaths is most common for children born more than 10 years prior to a survey (Curtis 1995); in this study, we focus only on children born within the past five years, and specifically women’s most recently born child.…”

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

“…By collecting a truncated birth history and the first birth, which is used currently to measure and monitor age at first birth, the reduction will be 25% and 39%, if a 5-year or 3-year reference period is used, respectively (results not shown). 9 Incorporating local events in the questionnaire may also improve data quality on timing of event (Helleringer et al 2014a;Helleringer et al 2014b).Adding simple questions such as sex of child will enable certain data quality assessment.…”

Improving the Quality of Adult Mortality Data Collected in Demographic Surveys: Validation Study of a New Siblings' Survival Questionnaire in Niakhar, Senegal

“…During this study, we found that maternal siblings were more likely to be omitted during SSH interviews if they were deceased, had migrated away from the community of origin, had a different biological father than the respondent, or had not co-resided with the respondent [19]. We thus developed a set of recall cues that addressed these factors.…”

“…Such errors have a significant impact on estimates of adult mortality rates [19]. Demographers have primarily sought to diagnose reporting errors in SSH datasets [20].…”