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Sampling definition of a DHS household [message #85] Wed, 20 February 2013 12:32 Go to next message
DHS user is currently offline  DHS user
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Registered: February 2013
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I am trying to work with the DHS data, and I cannot find any definition of 'menage'. What constitutes a household? Who
is counted? Are non-nuclear family included, including children who are fostered?
Re: Sampling definition of a DHS household [message #86 is a reply to message #85] Wed, 20 February 2013 12:33 Go to previous message
Bridgette-DHS is currently offline  Bridgette-DHS
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Registered: February 2013
Senior Member
Here is a response from one of our DHS Sampling experts Ruilin Ren, that should answer your question.

The definition of households in all DHS surveys is a social-economical definition rather than a demographic definition. Here is the definition (it may not be very precise):

A household consists of a person or a group of related or unrelated persons, who live together in the same dwelling unit, who acknowledge one adult male or female as the head of the household, who share the same housekeeping arrangements, and are considered as one unit. In some cases one may find a group of people living together in the same house, but each person has separate eating arrangements; they should be counted as separate one-person households. Collective living arrangements such as army camps, boarding schools, and prisons will not be considered as households.

The fostered children will be counted with no difference than the others, because the household population for the DHS counts "all persons who are usual members of the selected households, or who spent the night in the selected households the day before the survey".

I hope this helps.

Bridgette-DHS

[Updated on: Mon, 18 March 2013 09:05]

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