DHS Manuals

To achieve comparable information across countries, it is necessary to ensure that the questionnaires and the survey procedures followed in each country are similar. Therefore, the MEASURE DHS program has developed a set of basic documentation to go with the model questionnaires.

On This Page

• Fieldwork Manuals
• Sampling Manuals
• Report Tabulation
• Statistical & Methodological Documentation

Fieldwork Manuals

• DHS Interviewer’s Manual
  This manual is designed to explain to interviewers how to do their job. The manual complements the 2005 versions of the DHS Model Survey Questionnaires and includes information about implementation of the survey, training activities, and fieldwork procedures. It discusses in detail interview techniques and procedures for completeing the questionnaires.

• DHS Supervisor’s and Editor’s Manual
  This manual is designed to explain to field supervisors and field editors how to do their jobs. The instructions for both positions have been combined into one manual because supervisors and field editors are expected to share many activities, e.g.., editing questionnaires and tracking interviewers' performance. The manual complements the 2005 versions of the DHS Model Survey Questionnaires.

• DHS Guidelines for Interviewer Training
  This manual was produced as an aid for use in the design and implementation of field staff training. This document provides general guidelines for organizing and conducting the training of the field staff. The manual also includes a section on supervising fieldwork and the use of fieldcheck tables.

Sampling Manuals

• DHS Sampling Manual
  The DHS Sampling Manual presents the DHS approach to sampling issues such as optimum sampling frames, sample domains, stages, and sample selection.

Report Tabulation

• Tabulation Plan for DHS Preliminary Report
  This plan provides the tables for presenting the preliminary results obtained from the DHS survey.

• Tabulation Plan for DHS Final Report
  The Guidelines for the Main Survey Report (also known as the Tabulation Plan) provides model tables that set forth the major findings of a survey in a manner that will be useful to policy makers and program managers.  The data are presented in terms of national level statistics and for population subgroups such as those defined by age, education, marital status, economic status, urban/rural residence and region of the country.  When appropriate to a topic, further data disaggregations are shown.

  The Guidelines complement the 2005 versions of the DHS Model Survey Questionnaires.  Those survey instruments are substantially longer than previous model DHS Questionnaires, primarily because they incorporate topics formerly addressed in separate modules—topics such as malaria, HIV prevalence, information on orphans and vulnerable children, and support for chronically ill household members.  Accordingly, this is an expanded version of previous DHS Guidelines and consists of nearly 250 tables contained in 16 substantive chapters.

Statistical & Methodological Documentation

• Guide to DHS Statistics - Click here for the Online Guide (HTML)
  A reference guide to help users who work with DHS survey indicators and datasets to better understand indicator definitions and the calculations used to generate the data.

• International Indicators
  A list of DHS Indicators that correspond to indicators from international agencies and organizations. Taken from Appendix D of the DHS Tabulation Plan.