Validation of siblings' survival calendar, Niakhar 2013

Very few low-income countries have complete vital registration systems to monitor adult mortality accurately. Instead, adult mortality is estimated from data collected during household-based surveys, by asking respondents about the survival of their siblings. These siblings' survival histories (SSH) are inexpensive to collect but are potentially affected by large errors. As a result, estimates of the level of adult mortality in low-income countries are frequently contested. In this project, we tested whether a new survey instrument helps improve the quality of data on siblings' survival collected during surveys. This new instrument (which we call the "siblings' survival calendar", SSC) incorporates a number of probes and recall cues to reduce omissions of siblings. It also includes an event history calendar to improve the reporting of dates and ages. We conducted a validation study of this instrument in a rural area of Senegal. During this study, we randomized half the sample of respondents to an interview with the standard SSH instrument, and the other half to an interview with the SSC.