Strategies and analysis for growth and access (SAGA)

The purpose of this analysis is to (1) reassess the quality of the recent DHS data; (2) try to explain why discrepancies with earlier surveys arise, and (3) explore means of correcting for biases in the estimated rates of infant and under-five mortality. To do this we make use of the 1997 and 2003 DHS data as well as the 1992 DHS, and where possible resort to information from other sources. The plan of the analysis is as follows. In the next section we consider the presence (in each DHS) of birth year displacement problems and of age of death misreporting, and investigate the implications for estimates of infant and under-five mortality. This analysis also highlights the discrepancies between the 2003 DHS and earlier surveys in mortality rates calculated for similar periods of calendar time. In Section 3, we undertake a detailed comparison of sample characteristics in each survey, to see if problems in sampling might explain the discrepancies. In Section 4, we examine whether the problems instead may be attributable to the performance of specific interviewers. In Section 5 we consider two distinct approaches to correcting the mortality estimates for biases. For this we estim

Source: DEC abstract, PN-ADH-358 (2006). This is the source's own text, not a cited summary of the documents.