Final Report (PDF, 2132K) - Measure DHS

The household schedule collected basic information on household members and visitors whoslept in the household the night preceding the survey, including name, whether a usual resident or avisitor, sex, age and, for children 15 years and below, presence of natural parents in the household.The individual questionnaire contained eight sections and collected data on:• Fertility - including a truncated birth history covering the six years preceding the surveyand questions on desired number of children, and future childbearing intentions;• Fertility regulation - including knowledge and use of family planning, sources of familyplanning methods, and reasons for nonuse of family planning;• Maternal and child health - including prenatal care, breastfeeding, weaning practices,incidence of childhood diseases (such as fever, diarrhoea, and respiratory illness), immunisationstatus for children, and height and weight of children aged 6-36 months.A significant difference between the ODHS and other DHS surveys is the use of a truncated birth historyrather than a full birth history.The questionnaires were printed in Yoruba, the first language of over 85 percent of the populationof Ondo State. English versions of the questionnaires are reproduced in Appendix C.PretestThe pretest was conducted in June and July 1986. Pretest training consisted of one week ofclassroom instruction and one week of anthropometric measurement training and practice interviewing.A total of 16 people were trained. Trainers for the pretest consisted of the senior survey staff and twoDHS staff members, including a specialist in anthropometric measurement.Pretest fieldwork took place in three locations, lasted two weeks and covered 250 urban and ruralhouseholds. Two teams conducted interviews: each consisted of a supervisor and five interviewers.Completed questionnaires were edited in the field by the senior survey staff and returned to the surveyoffice for manual tabulation of results.A.3 Main SurveyTraining for the Main SurveyTraining for the main survey took place in August 1986. As the ODHS interviewers wereresponsible for collecting data on the height and weight of children, anthropometric training was includedin the training schedule. The four week training period was divided into one week of classroominstruction on the survey questionnaires, one week of practice interviewing with village women, oneweek of training in anthropometric measurement techniques and a final week of practice interviewing.Anthropometric training and subsequent fieldwork were conducted with standardized equipment:hanging spring scales for weighing children and portable wooden measuring boards for measuring theirrecumbent length. Trainees were taught to measure in teams of two and to follow the proceduresspecified in the manual "How to Weigh and Measure Children" (United Nations, 1986). At the end of thetraining period, all interviewers were tested on the accuracy with which they measured children.80