Description
DELHMWHY_ALL reports the main reason why the respondent delivered her child at home or not at a health facility.
DELHMWHY_ALL differs in structure from the standard DHS variables on why the woman did not deliver her last child in a health facility. For most such variables, the interviewer asked the open-ended question, "Why didn't you deliver in a health facility? Any other reason?" and recorded all responses, which were then turned into non-mutually exclusive dichotomous variables. By contrast, DELHMWHY_ALL required the respondent to state the mainreason why she delivered her most recent child at home and recorded a single response.
DELHMWHY_ALL consists of a set of six separate variables, covering the most recent birth (DELHMWHY_01) up to the sixth-most-recent birth (i.e., DELHMWHY_02, DELHMWHY_03, DELHMWHY_04, DELHMWHY_05, and DELHMWHY_06) during the reference period prior to the survey. If DELHMWHY_ALL is included in a data extract, all these separate variables are included in a researcher's data file.
For surveys including this question, information for this variable was collected on all births, up to a maximum of six, in the reference period. In many cases, data were hypothetically collected on up to six births, but no women in the survey had so many births (e.g., no woman had 4 or more births in 3 years, or had 5 or 6 births in 5 years). If, for example, no woman in a survey had 6 births in five years and only blank values were included in the original DHS file, then DELHMWHY_06 would not be available for that survey in IPUMS-DHS.
Comparability — Index
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GENERAL |
India |
Tanzania |
Comparability
Along with universe differences, DELHMWHY_ALL differs in both question wording and in the response categories on the survey form that summarize the woman's answer. The broad substantive meaning of the variable--why not go to a health facility and instead deliver at home--is consistent across samples.
To accommodate the different number and wording of the response categories, IPUMS-DHS uses composite coding for DELHMWHY_ALL. Rationales fall into six broad categories with different first digit codes: 1) Preference for home delivery; 2) Poor quality service at health facility; 3) Cost; 4) Physical access; 5) Lack of time; 6) Lack of knowledge; as well as an unspecified "other" category. More detailed reasons under these broad headings (e.g., "not necessary" = 11 versus "better care at home" =13) share a common first digit but are distinguished in the second digit when detailed information is available.
Comparability - Standard DHS
DELHMWHY_WHY is a country-specific variable not included in the standard DHS questionnaires.
Comparability — India [top]
The 1998 India survey form asked, "What is the main reason you did not go to a health facility for delivery?" (italics added) and recorded the answer as one of ten possible responses.
Comparability — Tanzania [top]
The 1996 Tanzania survey form asked, "Why did you deliver (NAME) at home?" and recorded the answer as one of six possible responses. The form does not explicitly demand the main reason, but if the respondent gave multiple reasons, the interviewer presumably asked which was most important from the list.
Universe
- Chad 2004: Women age 15-49 who gave birth in the last 5 years and who gave birth at home.
- Gabon 2000: Women age 15-49 who gave birth in the last 5 years and who gave birth at home.
- Gabon 2012: Women age 15-49 who gave birth in the last 5 years and who gave birth outside of a medical facility.
- India 1998: Ever-married women age 15-49 who gave birth in the last 3 years and who gave birth at home.
- Morocco 2003: Women age 15-49 who gave birth in the last 5 years and who gave birth at home.
- Rwanda 2010: Women age 15-49 who gave birth in the last 5 years and who gave birth at home.
- Rwanda 2014: Women age 15-49 who gave birth in the last 5 years and who gave birth at home.
- Rwanda 2019: Women age 15-49 who gave birth in the last 5 years and who gave birth at home.
- Tanzania 1996: Women age 15-49 who gave birth in the last 5 years and who gave birth at home.
- Yemen 1991: Ever-married women age 15-54 who gave birth in the last 5 years and who gave birth at home.
