A Discussion of the Reliability of Measures of Hygiene Behaviours: The Case of the Health Behaviour Intervention Project, Lima, Peru

This paper discusses the use of qualitative and quantitative methods to eliminate systematic sources of error in quantitative measurement of hygiene behaviours in the Health Behaviour Intervention project in Lima, Peru. The authors argue that the combination of methodologies can give public health better data for the design and implementation of interventions to prevent disease. In relation to qualitative methods, the paper discusses the reliability of structured observation data for health intervention studies. It presents background on structured observation in Lima, reliability of measure across observers and over time, and preliminary significant associations between behaviours and diarrhoeal disease.