Quality of Patients Age Data from the Rural and Urban Health Centers of Nigeria: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Background: Age misreporting is a common phenomenon in the developing countries. The most common age-related reporting irregularities are the digit preferences and age heaping around some attractive ages. The misreporting is assumed to differ between the rural and urban health centers due to socio-economic differentials. We carried out this study with two-fold objectives i.e., to assess the errors in age reporting, and to compare the quality of age data reported by the patients from the rural, semi-urban, and urban health centers of Katsina State, Nigeria. 

Methods: Age data for the patients visiting the outpatients departments was collected for the month of September 2013 from the Record Offices of the rural and urban health centers. We used the Whipple's index and the Myers' blended index to assess age heaping and digit preferences, respectively. 

Results: We noticed significant age heaping for ages ending in 0 and 5 from all health centers. The proportion of people aged 23 – 62 years tended to decrease from the urban to rural health centers. The proportion of ages ending in 0 and 5 increased from the urban to rural health centers. The mean proportion of ages ending in 0 and 5 was lower in males than that for females. The most preferred terminal digits were 0 and 5, and the most avoided digits in the urban health center were those ending in 1 and 9. In female age reporting, the preference for 0 was at least twice the preference for 5. 

Conclusions: The more rural a health center was located, the lower the quality of age data reported by the patients. We found no evidence of significant difference of error in age reporting between the gender groups. The findings are useful for medical practitioners and epidemiologists and call for caution whilst handling the age data from the developing countries.