Trial reportPloS one2021
Reducing underreporting of abortion in surveys: Results from two test applications of the list experiment method in Malawi and Senegal.
Trial report in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Bayesian Framework to Account for Misclassification Error and Uncertainty in the Estimation of Abortion Prevalence.Studies in family planning · 2026Article
- Contextualising abortion opinions in Kenya: A vignette-based national survey.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Combining the list-experiment and direct question to improve estimation of abortion incidence.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Addressing Abortion Underreporting in Surveys with the List Experiment: Lifetime and Five-Year Abortion Incidence with Multivariate Estimation of Socio-demographic Associations in two U.S. States.Population research and policy review · 2025Article
- Implementation of preconception care for preventing adverse pregnancy outcomes in rural and tribal areas of Nashik District, India.Preventive medicine reports · 2024Article
- Trading HIV for sheep: Risky sexual behavior and the response of female sex workers to Tabaski in Senegal.Health economics · 2024Article
- Pregnancy and pregnancy intention after experiencing infertility: A longitudinal study of women in Malawi.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Comparison of abortion incidence estimates derived from direct survey questions versus the list experiment among women in Ohio.PloS one · 2022Article
- Estimating Prevalence of Abortion Using List Experiments: Findings from a Survey of Women in Delaware and Maryland.Women's health issues : official publication of the Jacobs Institute of Women's HealthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAccurately measuring abortion incidence poses many challenges. The list experiment is a method designed to increase the reporting of sensitive or stigmatized behaviors in surveys, but has only recently been applied to the measurement of abortion. To further test the utility of the list experiment for measuring abortion incidence, we conducted list experiments in two countries, over two time periods. MATERIALS AND
methodsThe list experiment is an indirect method of measuring sensitive experiences that protects respondent confidentiality by hiding individual responses to a binary sensitive item (i.e., abortion) by combining this response with answers to other non-sensitive binary control items. Respondents report the number of list items that apply to them, not which ones. We conducted a list experiment to measure cumulative lifetime incidence of abortion in Malawi, and separately to measure cumulative five-year incidence of abortion in Senegal, among cisgender women of reproductive age.
resultsAmong 810 eligible respondents in Malawi, list experiment results estimated a cumulative lifetime incidence of abortion of 0.9% (95%CI: 0.0, 7.6). Among 1016 eligible respondents in Senegal, list experiment estimates indicated a cumulative five-year incidence of abortion of 2.8% (95%CI: 0.0, 10.4) which, while lower than anticipated, is seven times the proportion estimated from a direct question on abortion (0.4%).
conclusionsTwo test applications of the list experiment to measure abortion experiences in Malawi and Senegal likely underestimated abortion incidence. Future efforts should include context-specific formative qualitative research for the development and selection of list items, enumerator training, and method delivery to assess if and how these changes can improve method performance.
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