IPUMS-DHS Unlocks Research Possibilities with New Contextual Data

Have you ever wondered if high-levels of precipitation affect birthweights and infant and child survival? Is increased use of insecticide-treated bed nets associated with lower incidence of malaria? Do children in households near battle zones or other violent contexts have higher levels of child malnutrition? Do some staple crop regimes promote better health outcomes than others?

Now with IPUMS-DHS, you can easily study these questions and others on how environmental and social contexts affect human health and behavior.

Using GPS coordinates, we’ve linked contextual variables drawn from many data sources directly to individual DHS survey respondent records. All context variables describe the features of a small geographic area (5-10 kilometers) surrounding each DHS survey cluster location.

New variables include:

Keep checking back! Over the next year, IPUMS-DHS will still be adding more contextual variables, including summary statistics calculated from large census-based samples.

Plan a new research project linking individual characteristics and outcomes with the surrounding context, and let us know about it. We’re always eager to hear how people are using IPUMS-DHS!

________________________________

IPUMS-DHS is a system that makes it easy to find and review the thousands of DHS survey variables and to download a single fully-harmonized data file with precisely the variables and samples that interest you. The system currently includes variables from all DHS survey samples taken in India and 22 African countries; more samples are constantly being added.

For DHS survey samples with GPS cluster data that are not yet in IPUMS-DHS, the contextual variables are available in linkable CSV files.

To learn more about the IPUMS-DHS contextual variables, check out our Technical Note, Using IPUMS-DHS Contextual Variables, which provides much more detail.