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Home » Topics » Nutrition and Anthropometry » z-scores for phase 1 states in NFHS I (1992-93)
z-scores for phase 1 states in NFHS I (1992-93) [message #12457] Sat, 20 May 2017 02:39 Go to next message
kajori is currently offline  kajori
Messages: 6
Registered: May 2017
Location: Mumbai, India
Member
Hi All,
I am working in the field of child malnourishment in India. For that purpose I am using NFHS 1 data on India. As per DHS guidelines, to make the data relevant in the present day, I have used the additional file of anthropometric measures of children as per WHO standard, 2006 to get the z-scores. The additional file is obtainable under the name "iahw22dt" from the DHS website. According to the NFHS 1 report, only height of the children were not measured in the phase 1 states due to lack of tools but weight was measured. However, after merging the WHO standard z-scores with the Kid's file containing births of last 4 years, the z-scores for both height for age and weight for age are missing for the phase 1 states from the new variables hc 70 and hc 71 (present in the file iahw22dt). The weight for age z-scores for the phase 1 states are available in the older variable hw8 in the kid's file. But, for the sake of comparability I would like to use the z-scores calculated as per WHO 2006 standards. Why is this happening and how can I resolve this?
Re: z-scores for phase 1 states in NFHS I (1992-93) [message #12473 is a reply to message #12457] Tue, 23 May 2017 23:33 Go to previous message
Bridgette-DHS is currently offline  Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3017
Registered: February 2013
Senior Member
Following is a response from DHS Project Director, Sunita Kishor; and DHS Senior Research Associate, Shireen Assaf:

NFHS-1 was done in three phases. The report says: "However, due to the non-availability of measuring instruments during the first phase of data collection the height/length of children was not measured in the first phase states. In these, states only the weight of children was taken as a measure of their nutritional status." The states in the first phase were: Andhra, Himachal, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

It is DHS policy to use listwise deletion of the HAZ, WAZ, and WHZ scores if height is missing or weight is missing. However, it would be possible to calculate the WAZ score for the phase 1 cases that have weight but not height. You can get the software to do this from http://www.who.int/childgrowth/software/en/ .
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