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Height, Age and Weight for (male) Adolescents and Adults [message #14516]

Mon, 16 April 2018 11:04

nibiti
Messages: 20
Registered: April 2018
Location: Göttingen

Member

Hi everyone,

I've tried to find answer in existing threads and on the DHS website but I can't seem to figure it out.

I want to analyze anthropometric data (height, weight & age) for all age-groups and both genders. But I can only find height and age information for children (<5 years) and women. Even though the official Recode Manual says that HB2 ("Respondent's weight (kilos-1d)") and HB3 ("Respondent's height (cms-1d)") of the Household Record should have this information for men, I cannot find this variable in any of the records.

I've seen in some papers (e.g. Akresh et al. "War and Stature: Growing Up during the Nigerian Civil War") that the height of adult men should theoretically exist somewhere. My analysis is for Sub-Saharan African countries.

Does anyone have an idea of where I can find this information? Any help would be much appreciated!

Many thanks in advance!

Best
Timo

[Updated on: Mon, 16 April 2018 11:05]

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Re: Height, Age and Weight for (male) Adolescents and Adults [message #14570 is a reply to message #14516]

Sat, 21 April 2018 21:01

kingx025
Messages: 95
Registered: August 2016
Location: Minneapolis. Minnesota

Senior Member

Have you tried looking for the following variables in the PR file for household members: HB2 and HB3?

Not all surveys collected information on men; which samples are you interested in?

For the 117 samples included in IPUMS-DHS, you can see which samples included biometric (height and weight) data for men, from the following display page. An X means the variable is available in that sample; a dot means there is no such data for that sample. Here, I chose "Household members" as the unit of analysis and Male Anthropometry variables as the group in IPUMS-DHS (at idhsdata.org):
https://www.idhsdata.org/idhs-action/variables/group?id=bio_ anthm

Miriam King

Dr. Miriam King
IPUMS-DHS Project Manager (www.idhsdata.org)

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Re: Height, Age and Weight for (male) Adolescents and Adults [message #14671 is a reply to message #14570]

Fri, 27 April 2018 08:51

nibiti
Messages: 20
Registered: April 2018
Location: Göttingen

Member

Dear Miriam,

many thanks for your answer! That was really helpful. I didn't know the IPUMS-DHS page yet.
I have now found the data for men's height and weight. Unfortunately not many datasets include that information, but I can live with that.

However, one more question remains open:

There seems to be no height and weight information at all for individuals that are between 6 and 14 years old: It seems that no height and weight information is collected for this age group, because this age group is neither included in the KR (up to 5 years), nor the IR or MR (both >15 years) definitions. I have checked all three variables (hc3 for children's height, ha3 for woman's height and hb3 for man's height) but none includes datapoints for children/adolescents between 6 and 14 years.

Can you confirm this? Or does this data exist and I just haven't been able to find them?

Many thanks!

All the best

Timo

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Re: Height, Age and Weight for (male) Adolescents and Adults [message #14679 is a reply to message #14671]

Fri, 27 April 2018 17:11

Liz-DHS
Messages: 1516
Registered: February 2013

Senior Member

Dear User,
The following surveys have anthropometry for children 5-14 in age:
Colombia DHS 2005
Guatemala DHS 2014-15

The following survey has anthropometry for children 5-19 in age:
Egypt DHS 2014

Thank you!

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