Assessing the validity of respondents' reports of their partners' ages in a rural South African population-based cohort

BMJ Open
Guy HarlingTill Bärnighausen

Abstract

This study evaluated the validity of using respondents' reports of age disparity in their sexual relationships (perceived disparity), compared to age disparity based on each partner's report of their own date of birth (actual disparity). The study was conducted using data from a longitudinal population-based cohort in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, between 2005 and 2012. The study used 13,831 reports of partner age disparity within 7337 unique conjugal relationships. 10,012 (72.4%) reports were made by women. The primary outcome was the Lin concordance correlation of perceived and actual age disparities. Secondary outcomes included the sensitivity/specificity of perceived disparities to assess whether the man in the relationship was more than five or more than 10 years older than the woman. Mean relationship age disparity was 6 years. On average, respondents slightly underestimated their partners' ages (male respondents: 0.50 years; female respondents: 0.85 years). Almost three-quarters (72.3%) of age disparity estimates fell within 2 years of the true values, although a small minority of reports were far from correct. The Lin concordance correlation of perceived and actual age disparities (men: ρ=0.61; women: ρ=0.78), and ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Feb 12, 2015·AIDS and Behavior·Guy HarlingTill Bärnighausen
Feb 10, 2019·Sexually Transmitted Infections·Brendan Maughan-BrownAyesha B M Kharsany
Jan 7, 2020·Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes : JAIDS·Hillary M TopazianAudrey Pettifor
May 17, 2018·Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes : JAIDS·Brendan Maughan-BrownAyesha B M Kharsany
Apr 15, 2019·International Journal of Public Health·Christian SelingerAnna Bershteyn
Apr 2, 2017·Journal of the International AIDS Society·Meredith EvanThomas M Rehle
Jun 18, 2016·AIDS·Wim DelvaStéphane Helleringer

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