ArticleOpen access journal of contraception2017
Does courtesy bias affect how clients report on objective and subjective measures of family planning service quality? A comparison between facility- and home-based interviews.
Article in Open access journal of contraception, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Experiences of Health Facility Childbirth in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Evidence.Maternal and child health journal · 2022Pooled it
- Defining and evaluating the Hawthorne effect in primary care, a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Comparability of family planning quality of care measurement tools in low-and-middle income country settings: a systematic review.Reproductive health · 2021Pooled it
- Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and preliminary validation of the Dutch version of the TOGETHER questionnaire - a tool designed to assess how family members of patients perceive their involvement in the care provided by nurses.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2026Article
- School Nurse Perceptions of Their Role, Burnout, and Mentorship Programs: A Qualitative Analysis.The Journal of school nursing : the official publication of the National Association of School Nurses · 2026Article
- Examining women's choice between home and institutional births: Insights from the Salud Mesoamérica Initiative (SMI).PloS one · 2026Observational
- Resident and staff experiences of structural barriers to a housing-based overdose prevention site in Vancouver, Canada: "There is a double standard if you smoke".Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Assessing courtesy reporting bias in facility-based surveys on person-centred maternity care: evidence from urban informal settlements in Nairobi and Lusaka.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- Levels and determinants of person-centred maternity care among women living in urban informal settlements: evidence from client exit surveys in Nairobi, Lusaka and Ouagadougou.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Functional outcomes after primary vs delayed robot-assisted radical prostatectomy following active surveillance.JNCI cancer spectrum · 2025Article
- Article
- Parental perceptions of a novel subsidy program to address the financial burden of milk allergy: a qualitative study.Allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology : official journal of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2023Article
- Characteristics Associated with Knowledge about Periodic Health Examinations among Adults in Al-Jouf Region, KSA.Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences · 2023Article
- Assessing the Quality of Care at Primary Health Care Level in Two Pilot Regions of Albania.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Facility readiness and counseling during antenatal care and the relationship with early breastfeeding in Haiti and Malawi.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2020Article
- Client perceived quality of the postnatal care provided by public sector specialized care institutions following a normal vaginal delivery in Sri Lanka: a cross sectional study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2019Article
- A study protocol for an mHealth, multi-centre randomized control trial to promote use of postpartum contraception amongst rural women in Punjab, Pakistan.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2019Article
- Evaluating Quality of Contraceptive Counseling: An Analysis of the Method Information Index.Studies in family planning · 2019Article
- Article
- Person-centered maternity care and satisfaction with post-abortion care: A facility-based cross-sectional survey in Northern Uganda.Women's health (London, England)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeDespite a general understanding that exit interviews being conducted at service providers' facilities may influence clients' responses favorably to health professionals, there is very little evidence available that demonstrates the extent to which this problem exists. This study aimed at assessing and comparing clients' perceptions of the quality of family planning services and their satisfaction levels between facility- and home-based interviews.
methodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among clients receiving family planning services across three service delivery channels - nongovernmental organization (NGO) clinics, social franchise (SF) centers, and outreach camps. The survey took place from December 2015 to January 2016 in 70 districts across all four provinces of Pakistan. A total of 2,807 clients were interviewed, of whom 1,404 clients were interviewed at health facilities after receiving services and 1,403 were interviewed at their homes within 3 days of method uptake.
resultsOverall, we found no significant differences between the characteristics of study participants interviewed at health facilities or at home. The findings suggested that experiences reported in exit surveys at facilities were strongly biased positively. This was true for both experiential (service quality) and perception-based (satisfaction) questions in the context of SF centers, while at NGO clinics the interview location only affected clients' responses regarding service quality. However, in outreach settings, clients are more likely to share bad experiences in exit interviews than in home-based interviews on objectively asked questions (service quality).
conclusionOur study indicates signs of courtesy bias and possibly the Hawthorne effect in exit interviews. Program implementers could opt for home-based interviews for women receiving services at NGO clinics or SF center, whereas exit interviews could be used in outreach settings.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.