Global Goals Week 2019

Written by: The DHS Program

24 Sep, 2019

Global Goals Week is back with a full week of action, awareness, and accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals. The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program collects demographic and health indicators to calculate approximately 30 of the indicators supporting the SDGs. These indicators and more can be found […]


Nutrition in the Health System: Linking SPA and DHS Surveys

Written by: The DHS Program

10 Sep, 2019

Global momentum on quality of care in the health system continues to expand. The United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025) recognizes that the health system is a key pillar in providing universal coverage of essential nutrition actions. Reliable data for monitoring is central to understanding and improving the health system for nutrition. In […]


Luminare: Programming Code for DHS Indicators

Written by: The DHS Program

10 Jul, 2019
DHS Staff Programming

This blog post is part of Luminare, our blog series exploring innovative solutions to data collection, quality assurance, biomarker measurement, data use, and further analysis. Have you ever wondered how to write a Stata program for vaccination coverage or struggled to construct mortality rates using DHS data? Well, DHS Program staff are busy writing SPSS and Stata code for all indicators […]


Luminare: The Senegal Continuous Survey

Written by: The DHS Program

12 Jun, 2019

This blog post is part of Luminare, our new blog series exploring innovative solutions to data collection, quality assurance, biomarker measurement, data use, and further analysis. Two needs are often expressed by both DHS host countries and donors: 1) for data to be made available more frequently, and 2) for the continued strengthening of implementing agencies’ capacity to conduct […]


Luminare: Customize Fertility and Childhood Mortality Rates with DHS.rates

Written by: The DHS Program

30 May, 2019

This blog post is part of Luminare, our new blog series exploring innovative solutions to data collection, quality assurance, biomarker measurement, data use, and further analysis. This is the second post in the series that focuses on innovations using DHS.rates data.  Ever struggled to calculate fertility or child mortality indicators from survey data? Want to customize the reference period? […]


Luminare: Field Testing Solutions to Anthropometry Data Collection in Nigeria

Written by: The DHS Program

23 May, 2019

© 2018 Hanna Useem/ICF This blog post is part of Luminare, our new blog series exploring innovative solutions to data collection, quality assurance, biomarker measurement, data use, and further analysis. This is the first post in the series that focuses on innovations to improve the quality of anthropometry data.   Anthropometry, the measurement of the human body, gives a snapshot of the malnutrition situation in a country. Yet, […]


Luminare: The DHS Program Blog Series on Innovation

Written by: The DHS Program

25 Apr, 2019

This blog post is part of Luminare: The DHS Program Blog Series on Innovation. You can find additional posts in the Luminare series here. While The DHS Program is known for comparability and standard methods, it would not be relevant today without innovation. We’ve made big leaps – like moving from paper to tablet-based interviewing […]


Anthropometry measurement (height and weight) is a core component of DHS surveys that is used to generate indicators on nutritional status. The Biomarker Questionnaire now includes questions on clothing and hairstyle interference on measurements for both women and children for improved interpretation.