TBA Interview Questionnaire

Tool Name: TBA Interview Questionnaire

Origin / Source: Jason B. Smith / The Impact of Traditional Birth Attendant Training on the Health of Mothers and Newborns in Brong-Ahafo, Ghana

Technical area: Maternal and Newborn health

To questionnaire
To codebook
To interviewer manual


Basic Description: This is a 37 page instrument with modules that cover a) socio-demographic information, b) TBA training, c) equipment, supplies and records d) antepartum care e) care during labor and delivery f) postpartum care g) clients and payment h) supervision and i) family planning.

Country Applications: Ghana

Language(s) Available: English

Purpose: Evaluation

Technical Scope/Purpose: This tool is useful for collecting information on TBA knowledge attitudes and behaviors and was originally designed to help assess training program impact.

Design: Cross-sectional, retrospective, self-report

Method: Quantitative

Frequency of Administration: Designed for one time use

Key Users of the Information: Tertiary

Objectives and Scope of the Tool: This tool was designed to be used in triangulation with qualitative focus group data from TBAs and a detailed quantitative questionnaire administered to TBA clients in an effort to evaluated the health impact of a TBA training program. As a stand alone survey, it could be useful in providing baseline information as input to the design of a TBA training program or post training process evaluation of an existing TBA training program.

Key Indicators:

  • Type of TBA
  • exposure to training,
  • delivery practices,
  • referral practices,
  • provision of family planning services.

Tool Design: This tool was designed for use in a cross-section study of a universe of trained and untrained TBAs within the study area. It depends on a having a prior listing of all TBAs in the study area. If such a list is available, then sa mpling isn't necessary. Once all TBAs are listed, contact, consent and interviewing proceed along standard lines. In Ghana it was necessary to have the cooperation of both the Ministry of Health in the study area as well as the agency responsible to TBA training. This tool was designed for research purposes and while fairly standard for a research instrument, it probably couldn't be well used by non-researchers without research technical assistance.

Implementation and Training: Ministry of Health, external agency, global comparison.

Public health nurses, all with previous survey data collection experience were used as interviewers. Al interviewers underwent a two week training program in English an the local language spoken in the study area. All interviewers were bilingual. Th e training consisted of seven days of classroom instruction and exercises plus five days of field practice. Interviewer teams worked under the direction of a designated team leader. Up to three attempts were made to contact each TBA. Each questionnaire was checked in the field by the team leader before forwarding the completed interview for data processing.

Manuals and Guidelines: An interviewer training manual and a codebook are available.

Data Processing and Analysis: After questionnaires were checked by the team leader they were processed in-country. Data entry personnel had all had experience in coding and entering survey data using EpiInfo. All data entry personnel went thro ugh a three-day training session specific to this instrument. All questionnaires were coded and entered using EpiInfo. A data entry template was generated and pre-tested, as was an error check program. Double entry is recommended. Data sets generated in Ghana were checked for quality by a separate agency in the US. Cleaned and verified data sets were converted to SAS for advanced statistical analysis.

Reporting and Dissemination of Results: A final report of this study is available and can provide an example of how the results were reported, including table layout.

Cost: This tool is most usable for program evaluation purposes and would likely require both donor funding and external research technical assistance.

Lessons from Experience: In general, it is quite difficult to gather good information from TBAs using a standard survey format.

Contact Person:
Jason B. Smith, Senior Scientist, Family Health International, PO BOX 13950, RTP, NC, 27709, USA jbsmith@fhi.org