Description

UNMETNEED (V624) is a constructed variable that reports a woman's need for family planning according to whether she has an unmet need or a met need to space or to limit her future births.

When children are chosen as the unit of analysis, the woman respondent indicates the mother of the child.

The following describes the constructed categories in more detail:

• Unmet need for spacing includes pregnant women whose pregnancy was mistimed, postpartum amenorrheic women whose last birth was mistimed, and fecund women who are neither pregnant nor postpartum amenorrheic and who are not using any method of family planning and say they want to wait two or more years for their next birth, are undecided about the timing of the next birth, or are undecided whether to have another child.

• Unmet need for limiting includes pregnant women whose pregnancy was unwanted, postpartum amenorrheic women whose last birth was unwanted, and fecund women who are neither pregnant nor postpartum amenorrheic and who are not using any method of family planning and who want no more children.

• Met need for spacing includes women who are using some method of family planning and say they want to have another child, are undecided about the timing of the next birth, or are undecided whether to have another child.

• Met need for limiting includes women who are using family planning and who want no more children.

Note that the specific methods (modern or traditional) are not taken into account here.

Met need describes women who have no need for contraceptive methods, either because they desire a child soon (within the next two years) or because they are menopausal or infecund.

In high contraceptive prevalence countries (Model "A" countries), pregnant and postpartum amenorrheic women whose pregnancy was the result of a contraceptive failure are not included in the category of unmet need, but they are categorized as spacing failures or limiting failures. In low contraceptive prevalence countries (Model "B" countries), no such distinction is made, since information was not collected on contraceptive failure. Infecund women are also excluded from the unmet need categories.

UNMETNEED (V624) incorporates responses to the following variables:

• [EXPOSURE1/V623], which reports the woman's exposure to the risk of pregnancy, defined as pregnant, postpartum amenorrheic, menopausal or infecund, and fecund.

• [ V225], which reports whether a current pregnancy was wanted then, later or not at all (for women who were pregnant at the time of interview).

• [KIDDESIRE/V605] ,which reports whether the woman wants more children and when she would like them.

• [FPMETHNOW/V312] which reports the woman's current use of contraception.

For details of this variable and more information generally, visit The DHS Program website to find the latest Guide to DHS Statistics.

Comparability

Along with universe differences, UNMETNEED (V624) differs in the degree of detail provided on the woman's current unmet need status. IPUMS-DHS uses composite coding to preserve this detail while maximizing comparability across samples. For example, all responses in the general category "not at risk of pregnancy" share a common first digit of "5," while a second digit distinguishes specific reasons (e.g., infecund, mesopausal = 51, while never had sex = 53). Analysts using samples with differing degrees of detail may collapse detailed categories into broad categories based on the first digit to achieve comparability across samples.

While the definition of unmet need for limiting and spacing remained the same over time, other categories of need were included and constructed over time, such as "No sex, want to wait." Samples differ in the way women who are not at risk are categorized, as well. See the "Comparability - Standard DHS" section below for an explanation of how not-at-risk women were categorized over time.

UNMETNEED (V624) is constructed from multiple DHS variables. Researchers interested in using this variable should consult EXPOSURE1, KIDDESIRE, and FPMETHNOW for further information on comparability issues.

Comparability - Standard DHS

UNMETNEED (V624) is included in the standard DHS questionnaire for Phase 2 forward. Beginning in Phase 3, two additional categories were created for formerly and never married women. Women who have never had sex are separated into a separate category, as are women who would be categorized as having an unmet need to space or to limit, but who had not had sex in the month before the interview.

Universe