The DHS Program User Forum: General Data Questions » Getting data on the siblings of respondents

Home » Data » General Data Questions » Getting data on the siblings of respondents (Getting data on the siblings of respondents)

Show: Today's Messages :: Show Polls :: Message Navigator

Getting data on the siblings of respondents [message #19973]

Wed, 09 September 2020 05:58

afreelunch
Messages: 5
Registered: September 2020

Member

I have been trying to access data on the siblings of female respondents. In some datasets (e.g. the 2015 Individual Recode dataset for Angola), I can do this using the mm1, mm2, mm3, etc. variables. For example, mm1_01 tells me the gender of the respondent's eldest sibling, mm2_01 tells me whether they are alive and mm3_01 tells me their age (if they are alive). However, in other datasets, these variables are absent. For example, there seems to be no variables whatsoever on siblings in the 2011 Angola Individual Recode dataset.

Is there some way to construct these variable for all DHS surveys? If so, how do I do it?

Many thanks in advance for any ideas or pointers!

Report message to a moderator

Re: Getting data on the siblings of respondents [message #19977 is a reply to message #19973]

Wed, 09 September 2020 07:31

Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3196
Registered: February 2013

Senior Member

If Maternal Mortality was not collected in the survey (as is the case in Angola 2011), those variables will be missing in the dataset.

A good resource for researching a variable is the IPUMS-DHS site, which allows users to do a web-based search on a string or variable. If you click on the variable name, you can learn more about the variable, including its codes and frequencies, meaning, universe (who was asked the question), and question wording. Easily log in with your DHS user name email and password.
You should also check the questionnaires to see if the information you are looking for was collected in the survey.

Report message to a moderator

Re: Getting data on the siblings of respondents [message #19980 is a reply to message #19977]

Wed, 09 September 2020 12:14

afreelunch
Messages: 5
Registered: September 2020

Member

Dear Bridgette,

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any of these variables when searching in IPUMS-DHS. I tried searching for 'sibling', 'mm1', 'mm1_01' and various similar things -- but couldn't get any results.

Is there any way to figure out which DHS datasets (i.e. which countries and for which years) have these siblings variables? For example, is there any way to figure out which DHS datasets have the mm3_01 variable which (in the Angola 2015 dataset) tracks the age of the respondent's eldest sibling?

Many thanks,

Itzhak

Report message to a moderator

Re: Getting data on the siblings of respondents [message #19981 is a reply to message #19980]

Wed, 09 September 2020 12:44

Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3196
Registered: February 2013

Senior Member

You will only find the variable(s) if the information was collected in that survey. To get a list of surveys that collected Maternal Mortality, please do a search at: https://www.dhsprogram.com/What-We-Do/Survey-Search.cfm and select the survey Characteristic: "Maternal Mortality".

Report message to a moderator

Re: Getting data on the siblings of respondents [message #22542 is a reply to message #19981]

Tue, 30 March 2021 07:59

afreelunch
Messages: 5
Registered: September 2020

Member

Dear Bridgette,

Thanks so much (and sorry for the belated reply) -- this is incredibly helpful!

I do have one further question. Using the link you gave me, I am able to find which surveys contain the maternal mortality module. However, I am not able to find the name of the variable that measures the gender of the eldest sibling. Unfortunately, mm1_01 does not seem to be a variable in many of the surveys which contain a maternal mortality module.

Question: is there some way to find out the variable which measures the gender of the eldest sibling for all surveys that contain the maternal mortality module? Or do I need to check each survey individually?

[I should add that, as mentioned earlier, I did try searching for mm1_01 using the DHS-IPUMS site but couldn't find anything.]

Many thanks in advance for any assistance that you can provide!

Report message to a moderator

Re: Getting data on the siblings of respondents [message #22548 is a reply to message #22542]

Tue, 30 March 2021 10:31

Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3196
Registered: February 2013

Senior Member

Following is a response from DHS Research & Data Analysis Director, Tom Pullum:

The sex of the siblings is given by mm1 in the IR file. If the respondent had no siblings at all, then mm1_01 will be coded Not Applicable. Can you give an example of a survey with mm variables that does not include mm1?

Report message to a moderator

Previous Topic:	Phase-8 core questionnaire - iron supplementation question
Next Topic:	Cluster sampling

Goto Forum:

-=] Back to Top [=-

[ Syndicate this forum (XML) ] [

] [

]

Current Time: Mon Nov 18 08:10:29 Coordinated Universal Time 2024