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Clarification on applying sampling weights in Stata using India NFHS-5 [message #30908] Thu, 17 April 2025 14:18 Go to next message
Withadel is currently offline  Withadel
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I am currently working with the India NFHS-5 Individual Recode (IR) dataset for a project analyzing maternal health service utilization. While going through the guide on sampling weights, I still have some doubts and would appreciate any clarification.

Context of my analysis:

Dataset: IAIR7DFL.DTA

Population of interest: women aged 1549 who had a live birth in the past 5 years

Main outcomes: number of ANC visits (categorical), institutional delivery (binary)

Software: Stata 17

I understand from the DHS documentation that v005 should be used as the weight variable, and that it needs to be divided by 1,000,000 before applying. However, I am still confused about how to properly specify this in the svyset command in Stata, and how clustering and stratification should be handled for India, which has a complex sampling structure.

I came across some posts and papers suggesting using v023 as the stratification variable instead of v022, especially for India. Could someone confirm which one is appropriate here?

Given that NFHS-5 has state-specific sampling frames and uses oversampling in some states/urban areas, is there any adjustment needed beyond this basic svyset structure? Or does DHS already account for that in v005?
Re: Clarification on applying sampling weights in Stata using India NFHS-5 [message #30966 is a reply to message #30908] Wed, 07 May 2025 04:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wersed is currently offline  Wersed
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Use v005 as the weight (divide by 1,000,000), v021 for clustering, and v023 for stratification--not v022, which is less accurate for India. The weight already accounts for oversampling, so no extra adjustment is needed.

Re: Clarification on applying sampling weights in Stata using India NFHS-5 [message #31001 is a reply to message #30966] Thu, 15 May 2025 23:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Withadel is currently offline  Withadel
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Okay, I will try the method you suggested.
Re: Clarification on applying sampling weights in Stata using India NFHS-5 [message #31038 is a reply to message #31001] Mon, 02 June 2025 05:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Andreaa23 is currently offline  Andreaa23
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You're correct to pay attention to the details of DHS sampling design--getting the survey settings right is crucial for valid inference. Here's how you can properly set up the survey design in Stata 17 for analyzing the NFHS-5 (India) dataset.

Re: Clarification on applying sampling weights in Stata using India NFHS-5 [message #31072 is a reply to message #30908] Wed, 11 June 2025 22:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
miaowschool is currently offline  miaowschool
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v022 vs v023 is a common source of confusion. For the India DHS (NFHS) dataset, `v023` is recommended as the stratification variable instead of `v022`. `v022` is the standard DHS stratification variable, but in the case of India, due to state and urban/rural sampling, `v023` more accurately captures the actual strata used in the sample design. So your `svyset` command should be:

svyset [pw=weight], psu(v021) strata(v023)


Re: Clarification on applying sampling weights in Stata using India NFHS-5 [message #31175 is a reply to message #30908] Tue, 15 July 2025 11:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Dahliamenick is currently offline  Dahliamenick
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To set the correct sample weights in Stata with NFHS-5, use the command: svyset v021 [pweight=weight], strata(v023) after creating weight = v005/1000000.
Poor Bunny

[Updated on: Tue, 15 July 2025 11:51]

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Re: Clarification on applying sampling weights in Stata using India NFHS-5 [message #31340 is a reply to message #30908] Sat, 23 August 2025 04:32 Go to previous message
ryansmith5322 is currently offline  ryansmith5322
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From what I read in the DHS forums, some people suggest that for India v023 might be more appropriate because it aligns better with the way strata are defined, but I haven't seen a clear confirmation in the documentation.

If anyone has a concrete example of a correct svyset line for NFHS-5 IR data (weight + PSU + strata), that would be super helpful. It would clear up whether we need to make any additional adjustment for the oversampling in urban areas or if it's already fully handled by DHS through v005.


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