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Telescoping error in recalled food consumption: Evidence from a survey experiment in Ethiopia

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Title Telescoping error in recalled food consumption: Evidence from a survey experiment in Ethiopia
 
Creator Abate, Gashaw Tadesse
Brauw, Alan de
Gibson, John P.
Hirvonen, Kalle
Wolle, Abdulazize
 
Subject surveys
survey methods
interviews
food consumption
measurement
household surveys
spending
protein content
diet quality
 
Description Telescoping errors occur if survey respondents misdate events from outside the reference period and include them in their recall. Concern about telescoping influenced the design of early Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys, which used a two-visit interview format to bound food consumption recall. This design fell out of favor although not for evidence-based reasons. To measure the extent of telescoping bias on food consumption measures, a survey experiment was conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, randomly assigning households to either a two-visit bounded recall or a single visit unbounded recall. The average value of reported food consumption is 16 percent higher (95 percent CI: 7.4–25.9) in the unbounded single visit recall relative to the two-visit bounded recall. Most of the error is explained by difference in reported spending on less frequently consumed, protein-rich foods, so apparent food security indicators based on household diet diversity are likely overstated with unbounded recall.
 
Date 2022-10-28
2023-01-22T18:19:03Z
2023-01-22T18:19:03Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; de Brauw, Alan; Gibson, John; Hirvonen, Kalle; and Wolle, Abdulazize. 2022. Telescoping Error in Recalled Food Consumption: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Ethiopia. World Bank Economic Review 36(4): 889–908. https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhac015
0258-6770
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/127816
https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhac015
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-NC-4.0
Open Access
 
Publisher Oxford University Press (OUP)
 
Source World Bank Economic Review