Description

Like UNMETNEED and UNMETNEED2, UNMETNEED3 (V626A) is a constructed variable that indicates 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.

UNMETNEED3 is similar to UNMETNEED and UNMETNEED2. However, due to increased scrutiny of unmet need measures and the need for more consistent methods to collect these data, MEASURE DHS organized a Technical Expert Working Group (TEWG) to address these concerns. Broadly, the revisions agreed upon are as follows:

• Exclude inconsistently collected data

• Do not assume an unmet need status for women missing key data

• Simplify classification of unmet need for spacing versus unmet need for limiting

• Shorten the duration for which women are considered to be postpartum amenorrheic

• Standardize the calculation of infecundity

• Explicitly handle inconsistencies

For further detail on these revisions, consult "Revising Unmet Need for Family Planning" by Bradley, Croft, Fishel, and Westoff, found here.

Comparability

Apart from universe differences, UNMETNEED3 (V626A) is largely comparable across samples.

Comparability - Standard DHS

UNMETNEED3 (V626A) is included in the standard DHS questionnaire for Phase 6 forward.

Universe