How do responses vary between mothers and their daughters on measuring daughter’s self-rated health (SRH): a study among school-going adolescent girls in the primary setting of Varanasi, India

OBJECTIVE: How self-rated health (SRH) varies when the response on SRH is recorded from the respondent herself (adolescent girl) and her mother on her behalf. This study examines the prevalence of SRH among adolescent girls from her point of view as well as from her mother’s point of view. This insight could help us interpret the differences in opinion of girls and their mothers while measuring the girls’ self-rated health. RESULTS: Almost one-fifth (19.4%) of the girls reported poor SRH. In contrast, only one in eight mothers (12.3%) could report their daughters under the category of poor SRH. Nearly one-third (76.5%) of the mothers reported their daughter’s SRH as good when daughters themselves rated poorly on SRH and another one-tenth (9.6%) reported their daughter’s SRH as poor when daughters themselves categorized in the good SRH category [χ(2) = 9.900; p < 0.002]. More than 90 percent of the Rich and Middle wealth index women, women in the household with only daughters and no son, women whose husbands had higher education, women with higher secondary education, and non-working women visualized their daughter’s SRH as good when daughters themselves reported poor SRH. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13104-022-06174-1.