Reported versus recorded health service utilization in Grenada, West Indies

Calls for household surveys to provide information on service utilization in less developed countries raise questions regarding the accuracy and reliability of reporting. This paper compares reported to recorded health service utilization for diarrhoea and any other morbidity over a 2-week and 3-month period for information obtained from a household survey in Grenada, West Indies. A sensitivity analysis is used to derive minimum and maximum estimates of the accuracy of reported utilization. Over-reporting utilization was found to be between 33 and 62% for diarrhoea and 49 and 81% for any other morbidity. Under-reporting of all utilization was estimated to be between 47 and 65%. These results cast doubt on the utility of household surveys as a reliable source of information regarding service utilization.