Reproducibility and validity of maternal recall of pregnancy-related events.
We assessed the reproducibility and validity of a questionnaire that asks mothers to recall pregnancy-related events from thirty or more years ago. Among 146 women who completed the questionnaire twice, responses were highly reproducible for pre-pregnancy height and weight (r = 0.95), pregnancy complications (r = 0.74), substance use (r = 0.80), preterm delivery (r = 0.82), birthweight (r = 0.94), and breastfeeding (r = 0.89). Among 154 women whose questionnaire responses were compared to data collected during their pregnancies, recall was highly accurate for height (r = 0.90), pre-pregnancy weight (r = 0.86), birthweight (r = 0.91), and smoking (sensitivity = 0.86, specificity = 0.94). These findings suggest that long-term maternal recall is both reproducible and accurate for many factors related to pregnancy and delivery.
Tomeo
C A
CA
Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Rich-Edwards
J W
JW
Michels
K B
KB
Berkey
C S
CS
Hunter
D J
DJ
Frazier
A L
AL
Willett
W C
WC
Buka
S L
SL
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires