Agreement between maternal interview- and medical record-based gestational age.

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Perinatal Health
• Childhood Development

Background:

• Accurate gestational age (GA) is crucial for perinatal studies.
• Maternal recall of GA is often used but its reliability needs validation.
• Discrepancies in GA can impact study outcomes, particularly in pediatric research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the agreement between maternal interview-based and medical record-based gestational age.
• To identify factors influencing the accuracy of maternal recall of gestational age.
• To evaluate the utility of maternal interviews for deriving gestational age in epidemiological studies.

Main Methods:

• A case-control study of 383 children with strabismus and matched controls diagnosed between 1985-1986.
• Gestational age derived from medical records prioritized ultrasound, last menstrual period, and clinical examinations.
• Agreement assessed using intraclass correlation coefficient, kappa, and mean difference, stratified by covariates.

Main Results:

• Overall agreement was high, with 86% of mothers within 2 weeks of medical record GA (ICC=0.83).
• Better agreement observed with shorter recall periods, lower birth order, and neonatal illness related to prematurity.
• Poorer agreement noted in mothers of healthy preterm infants; greater misclassification in controls than cases.

Conclusions:

• Maternal recall of gestational age is generally reliable and supports its use in research.
• Factors like recall length and neonatal health influence recall accuracy.
• Potential biases in gestational age assessment exist, particularly for healthy preterm infants and controls.