The quality of retrospective data - An examination of long-term recall in a developing country

The literature on reporting error provides insights into the quality of retrospective reports, particularly us it pertains to short-term recall. Less is understood about the generalizability of these findings to longer-term retrospective reports, We review studies analyzing the quality of retrospective reports in the Malaysian Family Life Surveys (MFLS), fielded in Peninsular Malaysia in 1976 and 1988. and conclude that many of the data quality problems Sound previously are present in the MFLS. We summarize this literature, place studies based on the MFLS within the context of the reporting error literature, and discuss implications for the design of future surveys.