Codes
This variable is not available for any of the currently selected samples.
Description
CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS reports what reproductive event occurred during the woman-month, using numeric codes rather than the alphabetic codes employed in the original DHS calendar data. Samples included in CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS collected data on births, pregnancies, pregnancy terminations, and contraceptive use (including explicit statement of no contraceptive use that month with code 0).
Codes beginning at 0 and ending before code 100 deal with the non-use or use of contraception and the type of contraception used that month. While some family planning methods were reported consistently for every survey with calendar data, many related methods were reported differently depending on the survey. Some methods were mentioned in just one or a few surveys. IPUMS DHS uses composite coding to maximize comparability across samples with information on contraceptive use; see Comparability.
Researchers who wish to study how long or how frequently women used specific contraceptive methods should use the information in CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS. Those who wish to study the reason for stopping specific contraceptive methods should use CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS in conjunction with the variable CALREASON.
IPUMS DHS has converted the original alphabetic codes for birth (B), pregnancy (P), and pregnancy termination (T) to numeric codes of 100, 200, and 300, respectively, in CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS.
The structure of the calendar table for recording reproductive events allowed only one type of event to be reported per month. Thus, for example, though a woman must be pregnant the month she terminates a pregnancy or gives birth, a month with a miscarriage, abortion, stillbirth, or birth cannot simultaneously record a pregnancy. Similarly, a woman might have been using a family planning method during month when she later realized she had been pregnant. In this last case, only the pregnancy and not the contraceptive use would be reported for that month in CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS, since data on contraceptive use is collected after the questions on births, pregnancies, and pregnancy terminations.
The related variable CALREPROD_PBT reports whether a pregnancy, birth, or pregnancy termination occurred during the month but does not cover contraceptive use (or non-use).
Comparability — Index
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GENERAL |
Comparability
Along with universe differences, CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS differs across samples in the types of contraceptives reported.
To maximize comparability, IPUMS DHS uses composite coding for the different types of family planning methods. Closely related methods share a common first digit, while the second digit supplies specific detail. For example, all methods relying on some form of abstinence share a first digit of "4," while the second digit distinguishes between periodic abstinence/rhythm (code 41), standard days method (code 42), and abstinence (code 43). Related methods for injections, diaphragm/foam/jelly, and miscellaneous modern methods are given two-digit codes sharing a first digit of 2, 3, and 5, respectively. Researchers analyzing data from multiple surveys may find it useful to combine all responses sharing a common first digit in these categories to increase comparability.
CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS also differs across samples in the presence and frequency of missing data for some calendar months.
Some samples with a large number of months coded "not in universe or missing response" include subgroups of women who were not administered the questions to collect calendar data. For details, see the country-specific comparability text for information about why large numbers of cases were coded "999" (not in universe or missing response) in CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS for some samples.
Some other samples that collected data on births, pregnancies, terminations, and contraceptive use included months with missing data (filled with blanks), but all or nearly all women included in the sample had at least one calendar month reporting a meaningful response for a reproductive event. IPUMS DHS has coded the months with missing data in these samples as "Not in universe or missing response" (code 999) in CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS.
Researchers may choose to recode those "not in universe or missing response" cases as "0" for "No contraceptive use" for their analyses. If so, researchers should not recode as "0" those cases coded as "99" (not in universe) in CALBIRTH_TOTAL. Only cases relating to women with no valid calendar data for any month are coded "99" in CALBIRTH_TOTAL.
Because calendar data available through IPUMS DHS also include non-calendar variables, researchers may use data from other variables when deciding whether to assume a code of "999" in CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS really means "no contraceptive use during the month" (code 0). For example, a researcher might decide to recode as "0" (non-use of contraception) only cases that are 1) coded as "0" (never used family planning) in FPEVUSE (V302) and 2) are not coded as "99" in CALBIRTH_TOTAL.
Comparability - Standard DHS
CALREPROD_ALLEVENTS is based on VCAL_1 for women's samples that collected calendar data, including data on contraceptive use and non-use.
