Title: Asking questions about women's reproductive health: validity and reliability of survey findings from Istanbul.

POPLINE Document Number: 120545

Author(s):

Filippi V
Marshall T
Bulut A
Graham W
Yolsal N

Source citation:

TROPICAL MEDICINE AND INTERNATIONAL HEALTH, 1997 Jan;2(1):47-56.

Abstract:

The sensitivity and specificity of reproductive morbidity data (obtained, first, through questionnaires administered by female lay interviewers and, 1-2 weeks later, through physician interviews, physical examination, and laboratory tests) were compared in a cross-sectional study conducted in Istanbul, Turkey. The 696 female respondents were sampled from a clinic-based community register. The presence or absence of 5 morbidities (reproductive tract infection (RTI), urinary tract infection (UTI), menstrual disorders, pelvic relaxation, and anemia) was determined by algorithms. The prevalence of medically diagnosed morbidities was 7% for UTI, 16% for menstrual disorders, 20% for RTI, 27% for pelvic relaxation, and 33% for anemia. Except for anemia, questionnaire replies were more specific than sensitive in detecting morbidity, presumably due to acceptance of many of these conditions as normal. Specificity was 93% for home reports of menstrual disorders, 95.7% for pelvic relaxation, 81.2% for RTI (abnormal discharge and pain), 80.7% for UTI, and 41.7%% for anemia. The corresponding sensitivity rates were 45.4%, 17.3%, 49.3%, 17.3%, and 58.3%. Reliability between the interviews was highest for pelvic relaxation (66.1%) and lowest for menstrual disorders (39.9%). Perceived symptoms of ill health were reported more frequently to physicians than to lay interviewers. Overall, these findings suggest that questionnaire-based information is useful for assessing perceptions of ill health, but it has limited utility for identifying medically defined conditions.

Keywords:

Turkey
Methodological Studies
Research Methodology
Questionnaires
Interviews
Reliability
Validity
Perception
Reproductive Tract Infections
Urogenital Effects
Menstruation Disorders
Pelvis
Muscular Effects
Anemia
Developing Countries
Europe, Southeastern
Europe
Data Collection
Measurement
Psychological Factors
Behavior
Infections
Diseases
Urogenital System
Physiology
Biology
Anatomy