Table 2.
Accuracy of respondents’ reports of their partner’s age. Notes: Specificity = # of relations reported as age homogenous by the respondent/# of true age homogenous relationships; Sensitivity = # of relations reported as age disparate by the respondent/(# true number of age disparate relations.
| Partner classified as more than 5 years older | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All relations | Consistent age reporters | Age heaping | ||||
| Estimate (n/N) | 95% CI | Estimate (n/N) | 95% CI | Estimate (n/N) | 95% CI | |
| Specificity | ||||||
| All relations | 89.0(299/336) | 85.1–92.1 | 91.3(105/115) | 84.6–95.7 | 89.0(194/218) | 84.1–92.8 |
| Respondent < 25 years old | 89.7(131/146) | 83.6–94.1 | 88.9(48/54) | 77.4–95.8 | 90.8(99/109) | 83.8–95.5 |
| Respondent ≥ 25 years old | 88.4(168/190) | 83.0–92.6 | 93.4(57/61) | 84.0–98.2 | 87.2(95/109) | 79.4–92.8 |
| Sensitivity | ||||||
| All relations | 24.3(43/177) | 18.2–31.3 | 16.1(5/31) | 5.5–33.7 | 22.1(23/104) | 14.6–31.3 |
| Respondent < 25 years old | 14.0(8/57) | 6.3–25.8 | --a | --a | 10.8(4/37) | 3.0–25.4 |
| Respondent ≥ 25 years old | 29.2(35/120) | 21.2–38.2 | --a | --a | 28.4(19/67) | 18.0–40.7 |
| Partner classified as more than 10 years older | ||||||
| Specificity | ||||||
| All relations | 98.3(453/461) | 96.6–99.2 | 98.6(140/142) | 95.0–99.8 | 99.0(284/287) | 97.0–99.8 |
| Sensitivity | ||||||
| All relations | 9.6(5/52) | 3.2–21.0 | --a | --a | 8.6(3/35) | 1.9–23.0 |
a
The number of cases available for analysis was less than 20 and these cells were thus excluded from the analyses