Codes
This variable is not available for any of the currently selected samples.
Description
For woman-months with a continuous pregnancy that was neither right- nor left-censored, CALPREG_LONGTH indicates whether the length of the pregnancy (including the ending month with a birth or pregnancy termination) exceeded nine months. If the reported length of the pregnancy exceeded nine months, then all months of that pregnancy (including the birth or termination month) receive a code of "1" in CALPREG_LONG.
Some calendar samples report no instances of a pregnancy extending beyond nine months. Those samples that include some affirmative (code 1) responses in CALPREG_LONG report such extended duration pregnancies in only a small minority of cases.
An affirmative (code 1) value in CALPREG_LONG, indicating that the pregnancy continued for more than 9 months, may result from respondent error, error on the part of the interviewer recording the response, or data entry error. Such a prolonged pregnancy may also indicate delayed delivery or error in the calculation of when the pregnancy began.
IPUMS DHS has flagged months of pregnancies of unusually long duration in CALPREG_LONG as a convenience to researchers who may wish to exclude such (erroneously recorded) pregnancies from their analyses or recode such cases as lasting only nine months.
The related variable CALPREG_LENGTH reports the duration of non-truncated pregnancies, including pregnancies reportedly extending for more than nine months.
For information about how IPUMS DHS excludes left- and right-censored pregnancies from these variables, see CALPREG_LC and CALPREG_RC.
Comparability
Apart from universe differences, CALPREG_LENGTH is hypothetically comparable across samples. That some samples reported no instances of pregnancies lasting more than nine months suggests more rigorous editing of the data in those samples, perhaps during the data entry phase.
Comparability - Standard DHS
CALPREG_LONG is calculated from data taken from VCAL_1 for women's samples that collected calendar data.