Are we measuring what we want to measure? Individual consistency in survey response in rural Malawi

Abstract

This paper uses reinterview data collected by a household survey conducted in rural Malawi in 2001 to examine the extent of individual consistency in response to questions about HIV/AIDS and other topics. The nature and implications of individual inconsistency in survey response are further analyzed by evaluating covariates of individual consistency, and the implications of inconsistency for univariate and multivariate estimates. I find that the reinterviewed respondents are overall consistent in their answers and that, when there are inconsistencies, they do not significantly affect the conclusions that can be drawn from multivariate analyses of the survey data. 1 (MSc) Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone]. E-mail: [e-mail] Demographic Research – Special Collection 1: Article 3 -Social Interactions and HIV/AIDS in Rural Africa -78 http://www.demographic-research.org