Description

FPKNOLAM (V304_13) indicates whether the woman knew about the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM) as a method for family planning. The complementary variable FPEVUSLAM indicates whether the woman had ever used LAM as a means to delay or avoid a pregnancy.

Some samples differentiate between spontaneous and probed affirmative responses; see Comparability.

Comparability — Index

Comparability

Apart from universe differences and slight variation in how this contraceptive method was labelled and described, FPKNOLAM (V304_13) is largely comparable across samples. Most commonly, this response category was referred to as "lactational amenorrhea method (LAM)," although, as noted below, some samples diverged from this convention.

In most samples, the woman is first asked to list known methods of contraception in an open-ended question, and then is probed with descriptions of the methods not spontaneously mentioned. The other samples use only yes/no questions describing each contraceptive method. Because not all samples distinguish between spontaneous and probed affirmative responses, IPUMS-DHS uses composite coding, with all affirmative responses sharing a first digit of "1," and with the second digit distinguishing between "yes, spontaneously" (code "11") and "yes, probed" (code "12").

Comparability - Standard DHS

FPKNOLAM (V304_13) is included in the standard DHS questionnaire for Phase 1 forward. Starting in Phase 4, the response set reduced to two response categories ("yes" and "no"), eliminating the distinction between spontaneous and probed affirmative responses. In Phase 6, only the probing question is provided in the survey form, and the open-ended question is dropped.

Universe