Bio: Thomas Assefa is a Development Economist, from the University of Georgia. His PhD dissertation focused on high frequency data collection and behavior change communication using mobile phones, in Development Economics. Additionally, in a stand-alone chapter, he evaluated a large-scale program designed to promote fertilizer adoption in Ethiopia. Thomas also worked as a consultant for the World Bank and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), during his PhD study. Prior to pursuing his PhD, Thomas worked as a research officer at the Ethiopian Strategy Support Program of IFPRI.

Project summary: One key design feature in dietary diversity modules is the reference period over which data are collected, which can range from 1 to 15 days. While longer reference periods are associated with a large cognitive burden for respondents, shorter reference periods are also associated with erroneous inclusion of consumption episodes occurring outside the recall period (i.e., telescoping). This proposal, under the fellowship program, will develop and experimentally validate a novel survey method to resolve these tradeoffs between cognitive burden and recall. This new method seeks to extend respondents’ reference period without exacerbating cognitive burden associated with a longer recall period. Using the novel method, we collect diet data through phone calls several times a day over a 7-day window, with each call corresponding to a short, bounded recall period. By comparing women’s dietary diversity measures collected using this new method to dietary diversity measures collected through traditional methods (in person interview with recall over the full reference period), we formally test whether the new method affects recall bias and within-household measurement error. 

Briefing note:

Measuring diet outcomes with high frequency phone interviews