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Missing values on ANC visit [message #9334] Mon, 14 March 2016 12:05 Go to next message
Usha is currently offline  Usha
Messages: 2
Registered: May 2015
Location: Thailand
Member
Hello!

I am using NDHS, 2011 data set. I found missing values on many variables. For ANC visit, it is hard to understand the reason for missing values. If mother did not go for ANC visit it is coded as 0 but still there is missing values on ANC. Is it because mother refused to say answer or it is related to other reasons.

Thank you.
Re: Missing values on ANC visit [message #9385 is a reply to message #9334] Wed, 23 March 2016 00:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Liz-DHS
Messages: 1516
Registered: February 2013
Senior Member
Dear User,
Which data set are you specifically referring to? It may be that in that section of the questionnaire, they were asking information for only the youngest child and not all children. If you have additional questions, please feel free to post again. Thank you!
Re: Missing values on ANC visit [message #14589 is a reply to message #9385] Sun, 22 April 2018 01:32 Go to previous message
kingx025 is currently offline  kingx025
Messages: 95
Registered: August 2016
Location: Minneapolis. Minnesota
Senior Member
Missing values often reflect the fact that not all women in the survey were asked a particular question. For example, for a question about antenatal care, all women who did not give birth in the (usually) 5 years before the survey will not be asked about antenatal visits they made. Or, as the other person responding noted, the question may be confined to the most recent birth rather than all births in the preceding 5 years.

One way to check the reason for "missing' cases is to consult the "universe" tab for variables included in IPUMS-DHS. The IPUMS-DHS staff checks survey skip patterns and empirically checks numbers in the data to confirm just who was included in a question and who was left out (or in other words, was "not in the universe" for the question). There is such documentation written for all the thousands of variables included in IPUMS-DHS, available at idhsdata.org

Miriam King


Dr. Miriam King
IPUMS-DHS Project Manager (www.idhsdata.org)
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