East Pakistan: Knowledge and Use of Contraceptives

Readers of this bulletin are familiar with the history and major findings of surveys on the knowledge attitude and practice of contraception (called KAP studies for short): substantial proportions of the less literate and more rural sectors of the worlds population are interested in adopting family planning; smaller proportions know something about it; and still smaller percentages have tried it. The validity of such KAP research has often been called into question particularly on grounds that it overstates the case for family planning programs because respondents give favorable answers in order to please the interviewers not because they really feel that way. Here is a study that suggests a similar problem but in the other direction: respondents may resort to understatement not overstatement in an interview. This paper sets forth a procedure for estimating rates of underreporting of knowledge and practice of contraception based on data from a panel study in Dacea East Pakistan. (excerpt)