Consistency in Reporting Fertility Intention in India: Prospective and Retrospective Approaches

Abstract

The central objective of the paper is to validate the consistency in reporting unwanted pregnancy/birth using the National Family Health Survey-III (2005-06) data. With the help of responses about a woman's ideal number of children and the actual number of child(ren) she has, we have classified the status of latest pregnancy/birth as an unwanted or wanted (indirect approach). Kappa index has been employed to assess the agreement between two approaches. The unadjusted and adjusted effects of each predictor variable has been examined by using binary logistic regression and odds ratio has been transformed into the multiple classification analysis format. Analysis shows that women who belong to the disadvantaged group of socio-economic and demographic status may rationalize their reporting of unwanted births. This study makes a platform for drawing the conclusion that estimates of unwanted childbearing obtained from retrospective assessments are more likely to be underestimates than actual levels of unwanted childbearing measured from the indirect approach.