Evaluating consistency of recall of maternal and newborn care complications and intervention coverage using PMA panel data in SNNPR, Ethiopia

• Published in: PloS one 2019-05, Vol.14 (5), p.e0216612-e0216612
• Main Authors: Zimmerman, Linnea A, Shiferaw, Solomon, Seme, Assefa, Yi, Yuanyuan, Grove, John, Mershon, Claire-Helene, Ahmed, Saifuddin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Cesarean Section - statistics & numerical data; Childbirth & labor; Complications; Consistency; Data collection; Delivery (Childbirth); Enumeration; Ethiopia - epidemiology; Family planning; Female; Gynecology; Health aspects; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health services; Households; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Longitudinal Studies; Maternal child nursing; Maternal mortality; Maternal-Child Health Centers - statistics & numerical data; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental Recall - physiology; Middle Aged; Neonates; Newborn babies; Newborn infants; Obstetrics; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; People and Places; Polls & surveys; Postpartum; Postpartum Hemorrhage - epidemiology; Postpartum Hemorrhage - psychology; Postpartum Hemorrhage - therapy; Pregnancy; Pregnancy complications; Pregnancy Complications - epidemiology; Pregnancy Complications - psychology; Pregnancy Complications - therapy; Pregnant women; Public health; Recall; Reliability analysis; Reproductive health; Sensitivity; Sensitivity analysis; Signs and symptoms; Validity; Women; Womens health; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216612

There is recognition that effective interventions are available to prevent neonatal and maternal deaths but providing reliable and valid coverage estimates remains a challenge. Household surveys rely on recall of self-reported events that may span up to 5 years, raising concerns of recall bias. This study assessed the reliability of maternal recall of pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum events over a six-month period and identified relevant individual characteristics associated with inconsistent reporting. A longitudinal household survey was conducted with 321 pregnant women in 44 enumeration areas in Southern Nationals, Nationalities and People's Region in Ethiopia. Women who were six or more months pregnant were enrolled and interviewed at seven days, six weeks, and six months post-partum using an identical set of questions regarding maternal and neonatal health and receipt of select neonatal care interventions. We compared responses given at 7 days to those reported at 6 weeks and 6 months and conducted sensitivity, specificity, area under receiving operative curve, and Kappa analyses of selected indicators. We find that reporting complications is higher at the first interview after birth than at either the six-week or six-month interview. The specificity of the majority of complications is high, however sensitivity is generally much lower. The sensitivity of reporting any complication during pregnancy, delivery, or post-partum ranged from 54.5% to 67.6% at the 6-week interview and from 39.2% to 63.2% at the 6-month interview. Though sensitivity of receipt of neonatal interventions was high, specificity and kappa demonstrate low consistency. As with childbirth, it may be that during the first seven days women note symptoms with higher scrutiny, but if these do not later develop into serious health issues, they may be forgotten over time. Maternal complications and care are likely to be under-reported by women if interviewed for distant events.