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Re: Pregnancy duration [message #9500 is a reply to message #9497] Tue, 05 April 2016 10:50 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
user-rhs is currently offline  user-rhs
Messages: 132
Registered: December 2013
Senior Member
Hi Aboubacar,
There's a variable called vcal_1 that stores information on births, pregnancies and contraceptive use during at least 5 years prior to interview. From the DHS recode manual:

Quote:

The calendar of events representing the 5+ years prior to the date of interview. The calendar is split into 9 records, representing each of the 9 columns. Each of the 9 columns contains a single character for each month in the time period. The data are stored as single variables of 80 characters, allowing for up to 80 months to be represented in the calendar. The first character in each variable represents the most recent point in time, while the 80th character position represents data for January of the year in which the calendar started. The calendars are fixed at the 80th character position, such that the first few entries in the calendar represent points in time after the date of interview, and are consequently left blank.


Just a word of warning, though, that because it is a string variable, you will probably need some kind of loop or macro to generate the pregnancy duration variable for each pregnancy for each woman. The variable looks like this in the dataset:
index.php?t=getfile&id=528&private=0

There have been several threads on this discussion board on using the vcal variable that you should read to help you get a better understanding of using this variable. Consult the DHS Recode Manual for the coding scheme of this variable.

hth,
rhs

[Updated on: Tue, 05 April 2016 10:57]

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