Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

A Comparison of Maternal Interview and Medical Record Ascertainment of Violence among Women who had Poor Pregnancy Outcomes

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Maternal and Child Health Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives: This study investigated the agreement between self-reported and medical record assessment of exposure to violence and the impact of misclassification on the estimation of the association between exposure to violence and infant death and very low birthweight. Methods: The study population consisted of women who participated in two case-control studies on infant death and very low birthweight. There were 254 pairs of interviews and medical record reviews available for comparison. Results: A total of 153 women (60.2%) reported ever being exposed to violence – 92 (60.1%) based on the interview only, 18 (11.8%) based on the medical record only, and 43 (28.1%) in both sources. The sensitivity of the violence variables was low, ranging from 16.9% to 31.9% and kappa statistics showed poor agreement. Lower rates of all types of violence were found through the medical record than through the interview. Conclusion: Prevalence of violence based on medical record alone had a high degree of misclassification and some odds ratios were biased toward the null. Studies in which violence is an exposure, outcome, or confounder must use participant interviews in order to gather accurate information. A combination of sources may be the most accurate.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Joffe M, Grisso A. Comparison of ante-natal hospital records with retrospective interviewing. Am J Epidemiol 1985;17:113–9.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Mackenzie S, Lippman A. An investigation of report bias in a case-control study of pregnancy outcome. Am J Epidemiol 1989;129:65–75.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Tilley BC, Barnes AB, Bergstralh E, et al. A comparison of pregnancy history recall and medical records. Am J Epidemiol 1985;121:269–81.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Olsen JS, XO, Ross JA, Pendergrass T, Robison L. Medical record validation of maternally reported birth characteristics and pregnancy-related events: A report from the Children's Cancer Group. Am J Epidemiol 1997;145:58–67.

  5. Klemetti A, Saxen L. Prospective versus retrospective approach in the search for enviromental causes of malformations. Am J Epidemiol 1967;57:2071–5.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Cartwright A, Smith C. Some comparisons of data from medical records and from interviews with women who had recently had a live birth or stillbirth. Inst Soc Stud Med Care 1979;11:49–64.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bryant HE, Visser N, Love EJ. Records, recall loss, and recall bias in pregnancy: a comparison of interview and medical records data of pregnant and postnatal women. Am J Public Health 1989;79:78–80.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Horan D, Chapin J, Klein L, Schmidt L, Schulkin J. Domestic violence screening practices of obstetrician-gynecologists. Obstet Gynecol 1998;92:785–9.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Borowsky I, Ireland M. Parental screening for intimate partner violence by pediatricians and family physicians. Pediatrics 2002;110:509–16.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Parsons L, Zaccaro D, Wells B, Stovall T. Methods of and attitudes toward screening obstetrics and gynecology patients for domestic violence. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1995;173:381–7.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Dye T, Tolliver N, Lee R, Kenney C. Violence, pregnancy and birth outcome in Appalachia. Pediatr Perinatal Epidemiol 1995;9:35–47.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Liebschutz J, Feinman G, Sullivan L, Stein M, Samet J. Physical and sexual abuse in women infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. Arch Intern Med 2000;160:1659–64.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Gayle HD, Yip R, Myron JF, Nieburg P, Binkin NJ. Validation of maternally reported birth weights among 46,637 Tennessee WIC program participants. Public Health Rep 1988;103:143–7.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Hoekelman RA, Kelly J, Zimmer AW. The reliability of maternal recall. Clin Pediatr 1976;15:261–5.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Hahn R, Truman BI, Barker ND. Identifying ancestry: The reliability of ancestral identification in the United States by self, proxy, interviewer, and funeral director. Epidemiology 1996;7:75–80.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Moscou S, Anderson M, Kaplan J, Valencia L. Validity of racial/ethnic classifications in medical records data: An exploratory study. Am J Public Health 2003;93:1084–6.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Polednak A. Agreement in race-ethnicity coding between a hospital discharge database and another database. Ethn Dis 2001;11:24–9.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. McCloskey L, Plough A, Power K, Higgins C, Cruz A, Brown E. A community-wide infant mortaltiy review: Findings and implications. Public Health Rep 1999;114:165–77.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Cohen J. Weighted kappa: nominal scale agreement with provision for scaled disagreement or partial credit. Psych Bull 1968;70:213–20.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Fleiss JL. Measuring agreement between two judges on the presence or absence of a trait. Biometrics 1975;31:651–9.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Landis J, Koch G. The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics 1977;33:159–74.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. SAS Institute I. Statistical Analysis System. Cary, North Carolina: SAS Institute, Inc.; 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Campbell J. Abuse during pregnancy: Progress, policy and potential. Am J Public Health 1998;88:185–6.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Ballard T, Saltzman L, Gazmararian J, Spitz A, Lazorick S, Marks J. Violence during pregnancy: Measurement Issues. Am J Public Health 1998;88:274–6.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Rodriguez M, Szkupinski SQ, Bauer HM. Breaking the silence: Battered women's perspectives on medical care. Arch Fam Med 1996;5:153–8.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Sugg NK, Inui T. Primary care physicians' response to domestic violence. JAMA 1992;267:3157–60.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Rodriguez M, Bauer HM, McLoughlin E, Grumbach K. Screening and intervention for intimate partner abuse:practices and attitudes of primary care physicians. JAMA 1999;281:468–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Clark TJ, McKenna LS, Jewell MJ. Physical therapists' recognition of battered women in clinical settings. Phys Ther 1996;76:12–9.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Feldhaus KMK-MJ, Amsbur, HL, Norton IM, Lowenstein SR, Abbott JT. Accuracy of 3 brief screening questions for detecting partner violence in the emergency department. JAMA 1977;277:1357–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Norton L, Peipert JF, Zierler S, Lima B, Hume L. Battering in pregnancy: An assessment of two screening methods. Obstet Gynecol 1995;85:321–5.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Freund K, Bak SM, Blackhall L. Identifying domestic violence in primary care practice. J Gen Intern Med 1996;11:44–6.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Covington D, Diehl S, Wright B, Piner M. Assessing for violence during pregnancy using a systematic approach. Matern Child Health J 1997;1:129–33.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Paranjape A, Liebschutz J.

  34. McFarlane J, Parker B, Soeken K, Bullock L. Assessing for abuse during pregnancy: severity and frequency of injuries and associated entry into prenatal care. JAMA 1992;267:267–2372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. McFarlane J, Christoffel K, Bateman L, Miller V, Bullock L. Assessing for abuse: self-report versus nurse interview. Public Health Nurs 1991;8:245–50.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Seidman DS, Slater PE, Ever-Hadani P, Gale R. Accuracy of mothers' recall of birthweight and gestational age. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1987;94:731–5.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Liebschutz J, Frayne S, Saxe G. Violence Against Women. In: Charney P, editor. Women's Health. Philadelphia: American College of Physicians; 2003. p. 342.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Wiist W, McFarlane J. The effectiveness of an abuse assessment protocol in public health prenatal clinics. Am J Public Health 1999;89:1217–21.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Rhodes K, Lauderdale D, He T, Howes D, Levinson W. "Between me and the computer": increased detection of intimate partner violence using a computer questionnaire. Ann Emerg Med 2002;40:493–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Alonzo Plough, PhD, MPH, and Lois McCloskey, Dr.PH, the Principal Investigators of the case-by-case study and Karen Power, MPH, the Principal Investigator of the case control study. Both of these studies provided the data used for the current study. Also, the Institute for Community Health, the first author's thesis readers – Dr. Milton Kotelchuck, Professor and Chair, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Boston University School of Public Health and Dr. Jane Liebschutz, Assistant Professor, Department of General Internal Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Jodie Wigren, PhD, and Rose Dobosz, MA, for editing and general support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Community Health, Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, 163 Gore Street, Cambridge, MA, 02141, USA

    Lise E. Fried

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, Boston, MA, 02118, USA

    Ann Aschengrau

  3. Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, T4E, Boston, MA, 02118, USA

    Howard Cabral

  4. Institute on Urban Health Research, Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave, Stearns Center, Suite 503, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Hortensia Amaro

Authors
  1. Lise E. Fried
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ann Aschengrau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Howard Cabral
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hortensia Amaro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fried, L.E., Aschengrau, A., Cabral, H. et al. A Comparison of Maternal Interview and Medical Record Ascertainment of Violence among Women who had Poor Pregnancy Outcomes. Matern Child Health J 10, 451–460 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-006-0108-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-006-0108-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation