The DHS Program User Forum
Discussions regarding The DHS Program data and results
Home » Topics » Biomarkers » KR file, Missing anthropometric indicators in the 2022 Ghana DHS
KR file, Missing anthropometric indicators in the 2022 Ghana DHS [message #30294] Tue, 29 October 2024 23:06 Go to next message
Josie is currently offline  Josie
Messages: 2
Registered: October 2024
Member
Hi,

I am exploring the 2022 Ghana DHS for child malnutrition outcomes. I am using the KR file because I am interested in children under 5 of interviewed women. I find that in this file, the total sample is 9353 but there are missing values for a little over 4900 children on anthropometric indicators.

The 2022 Ghana DHS report indicated that 5045 children were eligible for the measurements of whom 98% had valid measures. In the KR file, information is available for about 4417 children, which is understandable since not all children had interviewed mothers.

What are the reasons for the substantially high number of missing children in the 2022 KR file (except those that were reported dead == 291)? How do I subsample to get the right sample for my work? Do I just exclude all the missing information? It would be worthwhile getting a justifiable reason to acknowledge in my research paper for my sample. I think I will also need to perform a comparison analysis on the socio-demographic characteristics of children and their mothers with missing data and those without to confirm it is a representative sample. Is this right?

I am using R for my analysis.

This was not the case for the 2003, 2008 and 2014 GDHS, which I felt was very odd (especially as I am also doing a trend analysis).
Re: KR file, Missing anthropometric indicators in the 2022 Ghana DHS [message #30311 is a reply to message #30294] Thu, 31 October 2024 17:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Janet-DHS is currently offline  Janet-DHS
Messages: 880
Registered: April 2022
Senior Member
Following is a response from DHS staff member, Tom Pullum:

When a variable is coded with a dot "." it means the variable was NA or Not Applicable for that case. In this survey there was subsampling for anthropometry. Measurement of children's weights and heights only applied to half of the households, alternating from one household to the next within each cluster. A variable v042, "household selected for hemoglobin" applies to weight (hw2) and height (hw3), not just blood tests for hemoglobin concentration. If v042=0, then hw2, hw3, and all variables constructed from hw2 and hw3, such as hw70, hw71, and hw72, are coded with a dot for NA.

You can proceed to analyze the data without any concern for the subsampling. There is no need to compare the children with v042=1 (selected) vs the children with v042 (not selected) because the selection was random.
Re: KR file, Missing anthropometric indicators in the 2022 Ghana DHS [message #30315 is a reply to message #30311] Fri, 01 November 2024 08:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Josie is currently offline  Josie
Messages: 2
Registered: October 2024
Member
Thanks, this is helpful.

Please, a quick question - is there a reason for the [random] subsampling of households (half) for this round of GDHS? This does not seem to be the case in previous rounds.
Re: KR file, Missing anthropometric indicators in the 2022 Ghana DHS [message #30334 is a reply to message #30315] Thu, 07 November 2024 21:03 Go to previous message
Janet-DHS is currently offline  Janet-DHS
Messages: 880
Registered: April 2022
Senior Member
Following is a response from DHS staff member, Tom Pullum:
There are usually two reasons for subsampling.  The first is to reduce cost. All surveys start out with a finite budget and a long list of potential outcomes.  Most of the cost is for the fieldwork. Biomarkers, especially, add to the amount of time spent in each household. A second factor is respondent fatigue.  The more time that is spent in each household, the greater the burden on the respondents.  Subsampling is being used increasingly often in DHS surveys for both of these reasons.
Previous Topic: Vitamin D3 data in India DHS 2019-21
Goto Forum:
  


Current Time: Sat Nov 9 11:45:51 Coordinated Universal Time 2024