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Home » Topics » HIV » HIV Testing - Nigeria (Blank HIV testing variables in 2018 Standard DHS )
HIV Testing - Nigeria [message #26429] Mon, 20 March 2023 10:30 Go to next message
MVG is currently offline  MVG
Messages: 1
Registered: March 2023
Member

The HIV testing variables in the 2018 Standard DHS for Nigeria are all blank. We could find the data in 2013 DHS datafile. Why are these variables blank? Is there a way for us to request this data from DHS? Or is there another datafile that includes these variables?

Here is the list of variables we are interested:

V781 Ever been tested for HIV

V826 Last time tested for HIV

V826A Months ago most recent HIV test

V827 Last HIV test: on your own, offered or required.

There are other variables that are also blank in 2018 Standard DHS such as V763D-G and D101F-G. The variable labels in SPSS have NA before them. What does NA mean?

Thank you!
Re: HIV Testing - Nigeria [message #26446 is a reply to message #26429] Tue, 21 March 2023 09:40 Go to previous message
Janet-DHS is currently offline  Janet-DHS
Messages: 666
Registered: April 2022
Senior Member
Following is a response from DHS staff member, Tom Pullum:

Go to the questionnaire in an appendix to the main report and see whether the questions for those variables were included in the survey. If the variables are missing, it is almost certainly because the questions were omitted. Decisions about what questions to include in the questionnaire are primarily up to the in-country steering committee and are not made by DHS staff.

With very few exceptions, all the data that have been collected have been made available. We do not have a closet where we hide data.

NA or na in a variable label means "not applicable" and is used when the relevant question for a standard variable has been omitted from a survey, and all the values of the variable have been coded with an NA code (in the Stata data files, that's a dot). For data processing it is preferable to include an empty variable rather than to omit the variable from the data file.
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