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A little question about pooling data [message #19679] Thu, 30 July 2020 01:24 Go to next message
owlietenil2 is currently offline  owlietenil2
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Registered: July 2020
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Hello!

I have seen several studies (Maheu-Giroux et al, 2015; Helleringer et al, 2014) pool congruent DHS data from different countries. I wanted to know if anyone has more information regarding how to do this exactly. Specifically, do you measure the weighted rates of the outcome for each country and then backtrack that rate/percentage to the actual study population (so if study pop is 18000 and weighted perc is 18% you would take 18% of the study population) and then use those numbers for each country's study?

I'm just a little confused how they can pool different countries and take into account the weighting as well as adjustment for key factors, all at the same time. I looked into the methods sections for these two studies and about 4-5 others that pool DHS data from different countries and the methods to pool data were not clear.


Thanks for any help in advance!

[Updated on: Thu, 30 July 2020 07:09] by Moderator

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Re: A little question about pooling data [message #19788 is a reply to message #19679] Fri, 14 August 2020 10:31 Go to previous message
Bridgette-DHS is currently offline  Bridgette-DHS
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Registered: February 2013
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Following is a response from DHS Research & Data Analysis Director, Tom Pullum:

This kind of question has come up many times on the forum. If you search with keyword "pooling" you should find answers to your questions. The postings describe options for the weights and how to handle the construction of clusters and strata that distinguish one survey from another.

When you have a pooled data file, you include a categorical variable for "survey." Then you basically treat survey as a covariate, much as you would treat v024 or v025, for example, in the analysis of a single survey.
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