Validation of maternal reports for low birthweight and preterm birth indicators in rural Nepal

Abstract

The use of maternal reports may underestimate and bias indicators for LBW and preterm birth. In settings with high prevalence of LBW and preterm births, these indicators generated from maternal reports may be more vulnerable to misclassification. In populations where an important proportion of births occur at home or where weight is not routinely measured, mothers perhaps place less importance on remembering size at birth. Further work is needed to explore whether these conclusions on the validity of maternal reports hold in similar rural and low-income settings.