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What does it means M2A$1 - DHS Women's dataset [message #669]

Sat, 03 August 2013 03:45

hanslie
Messages: 1
Registered: July 2013

Member

Dear All,

I am new in using DHS.
Currently, I am trying to analyze DHS, specifically women dataset (coded : IR).
Inside the dataset, there are variables names that I could not understand how does it stands for.
From the codebook, the variable coded as:
M2A-N
with explanation as follows : The type of person who gave prenatal care to the respondent prior to the birth. This question
has multiple coding categories and each category is recorded separately in these variables.Most of the categories are standard (M2A, B, C, F, G, J, N), however room has been left for country-specific categories (M2D, E, H, I, K, L). Any category not used in a particular country is left blank.
However, from the dataset, the variables are: M2A$1, M2A$2, M2A$3,.. M2A$6.
M2A stands for prenatal care given by doctor.
My question is what is "$1 ... $6" stands for?

Thank you

Hans

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Re: What does it means M2A$1 - DHS Women's dataset [message #703 is a reply to message #669]

Thu, 22 August 2013 09:42

Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3185
Registered: February 2013

Senior Member

Multiple or repeating records are placed one after the other, with the maximum number of occurrences of each section being represented in every case. Each variable in a repeating section is placed immediately after the preceding variable of the same occurrence, such that all variables for occurrence 1 precede all variables for occurrence 2 of a section. Each occurrence of every such variable must have its own name because statistical packages do not generally support the use of arrays or subscripts. For example, the third occurrence of the variable named M2A would be named M2A$03 in SPSS, or M2A_03 in SAS and STATA.

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Re: What does it means M2A$1 - DHS Women's dataset [message #12848 is a reply to message #703]

Sun, 23 July 2017 19:39

rppeyton
Messages: 6
Registered: July 2017
Location: Chicago

Member

So, in this case, do we just use the first instance for calculations? Or do we use all instances ($1-$5)?

Thank you
RPP

-RPP

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Re: What does it means M2A$1 - DHS Women's dataset [message #12851 is a reply to message #12848]

Mon, 24 July 2017 08:40

Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3185
Registered: February 2013

Senior Member

Following is a response from Senior DHS Stata Specialist, Tom Pullum:

The relevant question was asked only about the most recent birth, which has index $1 (_1 in Stata). Therefore you would only use m2a_1. The variables m2a_2 through m2a_6 have the Not Applicable (NA) code and are empty.

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Re: What does it means M2A$1 - DHS Women's dataset [message #12857 is a reply to message #12851]

Mon, 24 July 2017 18:43

rppeyton
Messages: 6
Registered: July 2017
Location: Chicago

Member

I apologize, I tried to piggy back on this questions which was problematic.

I was actually wondering about a similar situation using the AFIR dataset from 2015, and using the S414AA$1-S414AA$6 variable. It is alright for me to only use the S414AA$6 for calculations correct; the subsequent instances aren't listed as NA.

Thank you again, and I apologize for the initial confusion.

RPP

-RPP

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Re: What does it means M2A$1 - DHS Women's dataset [message #12861 is a reply to message #12857]

Tue, 25 July 2017 07:59

Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3185
Registered: February 2013

Senior Member

Following is a response from Senior DHS Stata Specialist, Tom Pullum:

These kinds of variables in the IR file are limited to births in the past five years and are indexed such that suffix _1 refers to the most recent birth, _2 refers to the next most recent birth, etc., up to a maximum of six births in the past five years. If a woman had no births in the past five years, then they are all NA. If she had only one, then _2 through _6 are NA, etc. For this specific variable you really get no information from _2 through _6, even for women with more than one birth in the past five years, so you should only use _1.

When looking into this sort of thing I strongly recommend that you open the file and actually look at the frequency distributions for the variables. It would then be clear that what you should use is _1.

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Re: What does it means M2A$1 - DHS Women's dataset [message #12867 is a reply to message #12861]

Tue, 25 July 2017 12:45

rppeyton
Messages: 6
Registered: July 2017
Location: Chicago

Member

Thank you, again for your prompt and direct response.

RPP

-RPP

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