DHS Data Users: More than 2,000 Users Accessing DHS Data through IPUMS-DHS

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Over the past four years, the IPUMS-DHS program has grown substantially, in both the magnitude of available data and in use. As of June 2019, more than 2,000 users have accessed the IPUMS-DHS database, and multiple papers have been published using DHS data through IPUMS-DHS.

One of the advantages of accessing DHS data through IPUMS-DHS is that variables are harmonized across surveys, facilitating comparative research. Recent research using IPUMS-DHS data highlight innovative methods and fascinating results:

• Becker conducted a comparative study looking at control of female sexuality and male absenteeism in 34 countries and found that women in historically pastoralist societies face more restrictive norms.
• Eisler, Thiede, and Strube used data from 40 sub-Saharan African surveys and found that abnormally hot or dry weather tends to reduce women’s ideal family size and desire for another child.
• Boyle and Svec recently published a paper on the international transmission of gender norms and female genital cutting (FGC) in six DHS countries. Results indicate that women’s decision making status is an important factor in FGC abandonment.
• Di Brisco and Farina explored the methodological challenge of measuring gender disparities through individual perceptions and enlightening the pertinence of the poset methodology for the analysis of ordinal variables and response profiles. They used IPUMS-DHS data from 16 African countries.

This year, IPUMS announced its first-ever IPUMS-DHS Award, an honor given to outstanding use of IPUMS-DHS data. The winning paper, Neonatal mortality in East Africa and West Africa: a geographic analysis of district-level demographic and health survey data (Grady et al., Geospatial Health 2017 volume 12:501) identifies high-risk districts and counties for neonatal mortality. This analysis aims to help prioritize intervention sites for countries as they strive to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.

IPUMS-DHS is also being used to train the next generation of analysts and data users. The Quantitative Global Health Analysis course taught at the University of Minnesota this spring relied on IPUMS-DHS as a primary data source for its students. Final products were research posters using the data. Research questions explored by students analyzing IPUMS-DHS data included:

• How Violence against Women Affects Fertility and Family Planning in Uganda
• Changes in and Predictors of Antenatal Care for Women in Mali
• Effects of Family Size and Food Insecurity on Child Mortality in Ethiopia
• Understanding Variation in Vaccination Status in Ethiopia
• Vitamin A Vaccination and Deficiency in Uganda
• Perceptions of HIV/AIDS in India in the Context of Education

IPUMS-DHS Data Update: As of June 2019, the IPUMS-DHS database includes 156 samples from 38 countries and nearly 15,000 consistently coded variables, including all standard DHS variables from DHS Phases 1 through 7 and many country-specific variables. Learn more on our website and read our previous blogs on the IPUMS-DHS collaboration here.

© 2019 Students presenting posters using IPUMS-DHS data at the first-ever Student Poster Extravaganza at the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation.