Re: Mismatch When Merging KR and PR recode files due to disparities in age variables [message #29447 is a reply to message #29434] |
Thu, 20 June 2024 10:36 |
Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3199 Registered: February 2013
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Senior Member |
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Following is a response from Senior DHS staff member, Tom Pullum:
Matching of records in different files should be done solely with ID codes. In the case of children, you match hv001 hv002 hvidx in the PR file with v001 v002 b16 in the KR file. There is no other reliable way to do a merge.
To get into the KR or BR files, a child must appear in the birth history of a woman in the IR file. Children who have died or are not living with the mother will appear in the KR/BR file but not in the PR file.
Children in the household whose mother is not in the household, because she has died or lives elsewhere, will appear in the PR file but not in the KR/BR file.
The b variables are forced to be internally consistent during data processing. For example, in the older surveys b8 is calculated from cmc of birth and cmc of interview as "b8=int((v008-b3)/12)". In the newer surveys b8 takes day of interview and day of birth into account. To show in two steps, "age_in_days=mdy(v006,v016,v007)-mdy(b1,b17,b2)" and b8=int(age_in_days/365.25)". (I am using the Stata date function mdy here.) The reported age of the child in the household survey, hv105, is ignored. It is not at all unusual for b8 and hv105 differ, and when they differ, priority is given to b8. Note that the information in the birth histories is provided by the mother. The information in the household survey is provided by the household informant (whose line number is given by hv003). The household informant may be someone other than the mother and be less informed than the mother. Even if the household informant is the mother, her responses in the birth history are considered to be more reliable than her responses in the household interview.
Hope this is helpful.
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