Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS): The DHS surveys provide data for a wide range of nationwide indicators in the areas of population, health, and nutrition in a country. The datasets are made available to researchers after the main survey report is released and the recoding is completed.
AIDS Indicator Surveys (AIS): These surveys provide participating countries with a standardized tool to obtain indicators for the effective monitoring of national HIV/AIDS programs. Similar to the DHS surveys, the AIS datasets are released when the main survey report is finalized and the recoding is completed, generally within 12 months of completion of fieldwork.
Service Provision Assessment (SPA): The SPA surveys provide valuable information about the characteristics of health, family planning, and HIV/AIDS services available in a country. SPA datasets are made available to researchers upon request.
Geographic Information System (GIS): Geographic information is collected in the DHS and AIS surveys. All survey data are presented both nationally and by sub-national reporting area. These reporting areas are often, but not always, provinces or groups of provinces, and are included in all recoded datasets.
HIV testing data(HIV): Some surveys include national voluntary HIV testing of respondents. Datasets showing test results and variables to link them to other findings from the DHS or AIS are available for more than 10 countries. These datasets must be requested separately from the country DHS or AIS dataset.
Survey Datasets
For all survey datasets made available by MEASURE DHS, a standardized file format is used to make cross-country analysis easier and to compare data with the results from the previous surveys in the participating country in order to study trends. This dataset file format standardizes the variable names, location, and value categories across countries and constructs many of the commonly used variables such as age in five-year groups.
The survey questionnaires change constantly over time. For example, the DHS questionnaires have changed significantly since the first phase (DHSI). For this reason, there is a different recode definition for each DHS phase. However, if a variable is present in one or more phases, that variable has the same meaning in wherever phase it is present. If a question is dropped from one phase to another, the name of the variable used for that question is not reusable. The variable will not be present in the recode definition of the phase were it was dropped. If a new question is added to the core questionnaire a new variable will be added to the recode definition.
GIS Datasets
The following information is included in the geographic data file:
The administrative units in which the point is located
Whether the point is located in an urban or rural area
The coordinates of the center of the populated area surveyed, expressed in decimal degrees and degrees and minutes.
The altitude at the cluster location in meters.
Whether the point was collected with a GPS unit or approximated using a map or gazetteer.
The geographic datum used in recording, WGS84, unless otherwise specified in the file.
Survey Datasets: MEASURE DHS uses a special software package, CSPro (previously ISSA) to process all the survey data. CSPro provides a mechanism to export data to the statistical packages SPSS, SAS and STATA. Data files exported using CSPro are stored using ASCII representation and they are provided in Flat or Rectangular formats. Along with the data file there is a syntax file describing the data files. These files are mainly in recoded format, but they can also be provided in raw data format.
GIS Datasets: The GIS data file is a DBase file (DBF). It is a table that can be opened with a number of applications, including Microsoft Excel and GIS applications.
The geographic data file contains the cluster ID that corresponds to the cluster ID in each of the survey datasets (individual woman, child, births, etc.). Depending on the type of analysis, you may choose to aggregate the DHS data or simply attach new information to the DHS data files within your GIS.
Are there any restrictions on the use of datasets?
Datasets are made available with the following conditions:
Survey data files are distributed by MEASURE DHS for legitimate academic research. Researchers need to provide to MEASURE DHS an abstract or a detailed description of any research that will be using the data before data are made available to them.
Once received, the datasets must not be passed on to other researchers without the written consent of MEASURE DHS.
Sufficient number of copies of publications, reports or papers based on the requested data must be sent to the DHS Data Archive, so that they can be sent to the specific countries whose data have been used
Online Download
DHS, AIS, GPS, and HIV datasets are available on the Internet for free through a process of electronic registration. To request access, you must register and request access to each country that you want datasets for. When submitting a request, you must also include an abstract with a description of how you expect to use the data. Call or email requests for SPA datasets.
To request and download dataset files, go to: http://www.measuredhs.com/login.cfm .
Because of the sensitive nature of geographic datasets and a few other restricted datasets, an additional form must be filled out for these specific datasets before access can be granted. Restricted dataset access is requested online as with other datasets, but an additional form will be emailed and will need to be signed and mailed back before access can be granted.
CD-ROM Distribution
Datasets are also available on CD-ROM. Charges to cover data media, handling, and postage are US$200 per dataset. A discounted rate of US$50 per dataset is offered to researchers and institutions from developing countries. Please contact the Data Archive Administrator (archive@orcmacro.com or +1 301-572-0851) to make payment arrangements. Prepayment is required for all orders.)
Please contact archive@orcmacro.com for assistance.