South Asia DHS variable checklist

Getting started

Here we show the pre-requisite code sections. Run these at the outset to avoid errors. First we load the required packages.

easypackages::libraries(
  # Data i/o
  "here",                 # relative file path
  "rio",                  # file import-export
  
  # Data manipulation
  "janitor",              # data cleaning fns
  "haven",                # stata, sas, spss data io
  "labelled",             # var labelling
  "readxl",               # excel sheets
  # "scales",               # to change formats and units
  "skimr",                # quick data summary
  "broom",                # view model results
  
  # Analysis output
  "gt",
  # "modelsummary",          # output summary tables
  "gtsummary",            # output summary tables
  "flextable",            # creating tables from objects
  "officer",              # editing in office docs
  
  # R graph related packages
  "ggstats",
  "RColorBrewer",
  # "scales",
  "patchwork",
  
  # Misc packages
  "tidyverse",            # Data manipulation iron man
  "tictoc"                # Code timing
)

Next we turn off scientific notations.

options(scipen = 999)

Next we set the default gtsummary print engine for tables.

theme_gtsummary_printer(print_engine = "flextable")

Now we set the flextable output defaults.

set_flextable_defaults(
  font.size = 11,
  text.align = "left",
  big.mark = "",
  background.color = "white",
  table.layout = "autofit",
  theme_fun = theme_vanilla
)

Introduction

On this page we show the variable checklist of South Asian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) datasets. This will be the primary document for viewing what variables are available for use in the DHS datasets in South Asia and across the countries. We check the variable availability from the raw data dictionaries and after that run the data pooling code.

Across all the checklists, we have dataset name in the table header row, variable label in the table col and variable name as records. If a variable is available in the dataset we give the variable name and if it’s unavailable we keep the records as missing.

Afghanistan variable checklist

The variable availability for Afghanistan is given below.

Table 1: Checklist of variables in Afghanistan DHS

pos	Variable labels	AFDHS 2015
1	ID and Weight variables
2	Women's ind sample weight	v005
3	Primary sampling unit	v021
4	Sample stratum number	v022
5	Strata used in sample design	v023
6	Cluster number	v001
7	Household number	v002
8	Respondent's line number	v003
9	Birth order	bord
10	Subnational region variables
11	Region/Division/State	v024
12	District of residence	sdistrict
13	Ecological region
14	Birth history variables
15	Survival status of child	b5
16	Child's age at death (cmc)	b7
17	Child is twin	b0
18	Child's month of birth	b1
19	Child's year of birth	b2
20	Child's date of birth (cmc)	b3
21	Child's sex	b4
22	Preceding birth interval	b11
23	Mother-level variables
24	Mother's date of birth (cmc)	v011
25	Highest education level	v106
26	Current marital status	v501
27	Partner's education level	v701
28	Mother's anemia level
29	Respondent's weight in kg
30	Respondent's height in cm
31	Household-level variables
32	Sex of household head	v151
33	Age of household head	v152
34	Wealth index quintile	v190
35	Social group variables
36	Religion
37	Ethnicity	v131
38	Caste
39	Language of questionnaire
40	Language of interview	v045b
41	Native language of respondent	v045c
42	Family-structure variables
43	Relationship to hh head	hv101
44	De jure residents	hv102
45	De facto residents	hv103
46	Sex of hh member	hv104
47	Age of hh member	hv105
48	Highest education of hh member	hv106
49	Community-level variables
50	Distance to healthcare facility	v467
51	Covered by health insurance	v481
52	Cluster altitude

Bangladesh variable checklist

The variable availability for Bangladesh is given below.

Table 2: Checklist of variables in Bangladesh DHS

pos	Variable labels	BDDHS 1993	BDDHS 1996	BDDHS 1999	BDDHS 2004	BDDHS 2007	BDDHS 2011	BDDHS 2014	BDDHS 2017	BDDHS 2022
1	ID and Weight variables
2	Women's ind sample weight	v005	v005	v005	v005	v005	v005	v005	v005	v005
3	Primary sampling unit	v021	v021	v021	v021	v021	v021	v021	v021	v021
4	Sample stratum number	v022	v022	v022	v022	v022	v022	v022	v022	v022
5	Strata used in sample design	v023	v023	v023	v023	v023	v023	v023	v023	v023
6	Cluster number	v001	v001	v001	v001	v001	v001	v001	v001	v001
7	Household number	v002	v002	v002	v002	v002	v002	v002	v002	v002
8	Respondent's line number	v003	v003	v003	v003	v003	v003	v003	v003	v003
9	Birth order	bord	bord	bord	bord	bord	bord	bord	bord	bord
10	Subnational region variables
11	Region/Division/State	v024	v024	v024	v024	v024	v024	v024	v024	v024
12	District of residence	sdistr	sdist							sdist
13	Ecological region
14	Birth history variables
15	Survival status of child	b5	b5	b5	b5	b5	b5	b5	b5	b5
16	Child's age at death (cmc)	b7	b7	b7	b7	b7	b7	b7	b7	b7
17	Child is twin	b0	b0	b0	b0	b0	b0	b0	b0	b0
18	Child's month of birth	b1	b1	b1	b1	b1	b1	b1	b1	b1
19	Child's year of birth	b2	b2	b2	b2	b2	b2	b2	b2	b2
20	Child's date of birth (cmc)	b3	b3	b3	b3	b3	b3	b3	b3	b3
21	Child's sex	b4	b4	b4	b4	b4	b4	b4	b4	b4
22	Preceding birth interval	b11	b11	b11	b11	b11	b11	b11	b11	b11
23	Mother-level variables
24	Mother's date of birth (cmc)	v011	v011	v011	v011	v011	v011	v011	v011	v011
25	Highest education level	v106	v106	v106	v106	v106	v106	v106	v106	v106
26	Current marital status	v501	v501	v501	v501	v501	v501	v501	v501	v501
27	Partner's education level	v701	v701	v701	v701	v701	v701	v701	v701	v701
28	Mother's anemia level						v457
29	Respondent's weight in kg			v437	v437	v437	v437	v437	v437	v437
30	Respondent's height in cm			v438	v438	v438	v438	v438	v438	v438
31	Household-level variables
32	Sex of household head	v151	v151	v151	v151	v151	v151	v151	v151	v151
33	Age of household head	v152	v152	v152	v152	v152	v152	v152	v152	v152
34	Wealth index quintile				v190	v190	v190	v190	v190	v190
35	Social group variables
36	Religion	v130	v130	v130	v130	v130	v130	v130	v130	v130
37	Ethnicity
38	Caste
39	Language of questionnaire									v045a
40	Language of interview									v045b
41	Native language of respondent									v045c
42	Family-structure variables
43	Relationship to hh head	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101
44	De jure residents	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102
45	De facto residents	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103
46	Sex of hh member	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104
47	Age of hh member	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105
48	Highest education of hh member	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106
49	Community-level variables
50	Distance to healthcare facility
51	Covered by health insurance								v481	v481
52	Cluster altitude						v040		v040	v040

NOTE:

• In Bangladesh DHS 1993, 1996 and 1996 the wealth index variables is available in the HR files.

India variable checklist

The variable availability for India is given below.

Table 3: Checklist of variables in India DHS

pos	Variable labels	IADHS 1992	IADHS 1998	IADHS 2005	IADHS 2015	IADHS 2019
1	ID and Weight variables
2	Women's ind sample weight	v005	v005	v005	v005	v005
3	Primary sampling unit	v021	v021	v021	v021	v021
4	Sample stratum number	v022	v022	v022	v022	v022
5	Strata used in sample design	v023	v023	v023	v023	v023
6	Cluster number	v001	v001	v001	v001	v001
7	Household number	v002	v002	v002	v002	v002
8	Respondent's line number	v003	v003	v003	v003	v003
9	Birth order	bord	bord	bord	bord	bord
10	Subnational region variables
11	Region/Division/State	v024	v024	v024	v024	v024
12	District of residence	shdist	sdist		shdistri	shdist
13	Ecological region
14	Birth history variables
15	Survival status of child	b5	b5	b5	b5	b5
16	Child's age at death (cmc)	b7	b7	b7	b7	b7
17	Child is twin	b0	b0	b0	b0	b0
18	Child's month of birth	b1	b1	b1	b1	b1
19	Child's year of birth	b2	b2	b2	b2	b2
20	Child's date of birth (cmc)	b3	b3	b3	b3	b3
21	Child's sex	b4	b4	b4	b4	b4
22	Preceding birth interval	b11	b11	b11	b11	b11
23	Mother-level variables
24	Mother's date of birth (cmc)	v011	v011	v011	v011	v011
25	Highest education level	v106	v106	v106	v106	v106
26	Current marital status	v501	v501	v501	v501	v501
27	Partner's education level	v701	v701	v701	v701	v701
28	Mother's anemia level
29	Respondent's weight in kg
30	Respondent's height in cm
31	Household-level variables
32	Sex of household head	v151	v151	v151	v151	v151
33	Age of household head	v152	v152	v152	v152	v152
34	Wealth index quintile			v190	v190	v190
35	Social group variables
36	Religion	v130	v130	v130	v130	v130
37	Ethnicity	v131	v131		v131	v131
38	Caste	shcaste	sh40/sh41	sh45/sh46	sh35/sh36	sh48/sh49
39	Language of questionnaire	slangqst			slangq	v045a
40	Language of interview	slangint			slangi	v045b
41	Native language of respondent	slangrsp	slanguag	slang	slangrm	v045c
42	Family-structure variables
43	Relationship to hh head	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101
44	De jure residents	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102
45	De facto residents	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103
46	Sex of hh member	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104
47	Age of hh member	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105
48	Highest education of hh member	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106
49	Community-level variables
50	Distance to healthcare facility
51	Covered by health insurance				v481	v481
52	Cluster altitude		saltitud	v040	v040	v040

NOTE: Regarding the variable names and their corresponding datasets

• In India DHS 1992 caste variable is available only in the HR and PR files.
• Across all India DHS rounds ethnicity variable is similar to caste.
• The language-related variables are in the IR and BR files.
• In India DHS 1992 and 1998 the wealth index variables is available in the HR files.

Maldives variable checklist

The variable availability for Maldives is given below.

Table 4: Checklist of variables in Maldives DHS

pos	Variable labels	MVDHS 2009	MVDHS 2016
1	ID and Weight variables
2	Women's ind sample weight	v005	v005
3	Primary sampling unit	v021	v021
4	Sample stratum number	v022	v022
5	Strata used in sample design	v023	v023
6	Cluster number	v001	v001
7	Household number	v002	v002
8	Respondent's line number	v003	v003
9	Birth order	bord	bord
10	Subnational region variables
11	Region/Division/State	v024	v024
12	District of residence
13	Ecological region
14	Birth history variables
15	Survival status of child	b5	b5
16	Child's age at death (cmc)	b7	b7
17	Child is twin	b0	b0
18	Child's month of birth	b1	b1
19	Child's year of birth	b2	b2
20	Child's date of birth (cmc)	b3	b3
21	Child's sex	b4	b4
22	Preceding birth interval	b11	b11
23	Mother-level variables
24	Mother's date of birth (cmc)	v011	v011
25	Highest education level	v106	v106
26	Current marital status	v501	v501
27	Partner's education level	v701	v701
28	Mother's anemia level
29	Respondent's weight in kg
30	Respondent's height in cm
31	Household-level variables
32	Sex of household head	v151	v151
33	Age of household head	v152	v152
34	Wealth index quintile	v190	v190
35	Social group variables
36	Religion
37	Caste
38	Ethnicity
39	Language of questionnaire		v045a
40	Language of interview		v045b
41	Native language of respondent		v045c
42	Family-structure variables
43	Relationship to hh head	hv101	hv101
44	De jure residents	hv102	hv102
45	De facto residents	hv103	hv103
46	Sex of hh member	hv104	hv104
47	Age of hh member	hv105	hv105
48	Highest education of hh member	hv106	hv106
49	Community-level variables
50	Distance to healthcare facility
51	Covered by health insurance		v481
52	Cluster altitude

Nepal variable checklist

The variable availability for Nepal is given below.

Table 5: Checklist of variables in Nepal DHS

pos	Variable labels	NPDHS 1996	NPDHS 2001	NPDHS 2006	NPDHS 2011	NPDHS 2016	NPDHS 2022
1	ID and Weight variables
2	Women's ind sample weight	v005	v005	v005	v005	v005	v005
3	Primary sampling unit	v021	v021	v021	v021	v021	v021
4	Sample stratum number	v022	v022	v022	v022	v022	v022
5	Strata used in sample design	v023	v023	v023	v023	v023	v023
6	Cluster number	v001	v001	v001	v001	v001	v001
7	Household number	v002	v002	v002	v002	v002	v002
8	Respondent's line number	v003	v003	v003	v003	v003	v003
9	Birth order	bord	bord	bord	bord	bord	bord
10	Subnational region variables
11	Region/Division/State	v024	v024	v024	v024	v024	v024
12	District of residence		shdistr	shdist	shdistrict	shdist	shdist
13	Ecological region	shez	shreg1	shreg1	shecoreg	shecoreg	shecoreg
14	Birth history variables
15	Survival status of child	b5	b5	b5	b5	b5	b5
16	Child's age at death (cmc)	b7	b7	b7	b7	b7	b7
17	Child is twin	b0	b0	b0	b0	b0	b0
18	Child's month of birth	b1	b1	b1	b1	b1	b1
19	Child's year of birth	b2	b2	b2	b2	b2	b2
20	Child's date of birth (cmc)	b3	b3	b3	b3	b3	b3
21	Child's sex	b4	b4	b4	b4	b4	b4
22	Preceding birth interval	b11	b11	b11	b11	b11	b11
23	Mother-level variables
24	Mother's date of birth (cmc)	v011	v011	v011	v011	v011	v011
25	Highest education level	v106	v106	v106	v106	v106	v106
26	Current marital status	v501	v501	v501	v501	v501	v501
27	Partner's education level	v701	v701	v701	v701	v701	v701
28	Mother's anemia level
29	Respondent's weight in kg
30	Respondent's height in cm
31	Household-level variables
32	Sex of household head	v151	v151	v151	v151	v151	v151
33	Age of household head	v152	v152	v152	v152	v152	v152
34	Wealth index quintile	v190	v190	v190	v190	v190	v190
35	Social group variables
36	Religion	v130	v130	v130	v130	v130	v130
37	Caste	sh020	sh27	scaste
38	Ethnicity	v131	v131	v131	v131	v131	v131
39	Language of questionnaire	slangq	slangq	sqlang	slquest	v045a	v045a
40	Language of interview	slangi	slangi	silang	slinterv	v045b	v045b
41	Native language of respondent	slangn	slangr	snlang	slnative	v045c	v045c
42	Family-structure variables
43	Relationship to hh head	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101
44	De jure residents	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102
45	De facto residents	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103
46	Sex of hh member	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104
47	Age of hh member	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105
48	Highest education of hh member	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106
49	Community-level variables
50	Distance to healthcare facility
51	Covered by health insurance						v481
52	Cluster altitude			v040	v040	v040	v040

NOTE: Regarding the variable names and their corresponding datasets

• In all Nepal DHS the district variable is available in the IR, HR and PR files. Here we quote the names from the HR and PR files.
• In all Nepal DHS the ecological region variable is available in the IR, HR and PR files. Here we quote the names from the HR and PR files.
• In all Nepal DHS rounds the ethnicity variable is similar to caste.
• The caste variable is available in the HR and PR files of 1996 and 2001 rounds and in the BR and IR files of 2006 round.
• The language-related variables are in the IR and BR files.
• In Nepal DHS 1996 and 2001 the wealth index variable is available in a separate file.

Pakistan variable checklist

The variable availability for Pakistan is given below.

Table 6: Checklist of variables in Pakistan DHS

pos	Variable labels	PKDHS 1990	PKDHS 2006	PKDHS 2012	PKDHS 2017
1	ID and Weight variables
2	Women's ind sample weight	v005	v005	v005	v005
3	Primary sampling unit	v021	v021	v021	v021
4	Sample stratum number	v022	v022	v022	v022
5	Strata used in sample design	v023	v023	v023	v023
6	Cluster number	v001	v001	v001	v001
7	Household number	v002	v002	v002	v002
8	Respondent's line number	v003	v003	v003	v003
9	Birth order	bord	bord	bord	bord
10	Subnational region variables
11	Region/Division/State	v024	v024	v024	v024
12	District of residence	sdist	sdist	sdist	sdist
13	Ecological region
14	Birth history variables
15	Survival status of child	b5	b5	b5	b5
16	Child's age at death (cmc)	b7	b7	b7	b7
17	Child is twin	b0	b0	b0	b0
18	Child's month of birth	b1	b1	b1	b1
19	Child's year of birth	b2	b2	b2	b2
20	Child's date of birth (cmc)	b3	b3	b3	b3
21	Child's sex	b4	b4	b4	b4
22	Preceding birth interval	b11	b11	b11	b11
23	Mother-level variables
24	Mother's date of birth (cmc)	v011	v011	v011	v011
25	Highest education level	v106	v106	v106	v106
26	Current marital status	v501	v501	v501	v501
27	Partner's education level	v701	v701	v701	v701
28	Mother's anemia level
29	Respondent's weight in kg
30	Respondent's height in cm
31	Household-level variables
32	Sex of household head	v151	v151	v151	v151
33	Age of household head	v152	v152	v152	v152
34	Wealth index quintile	v190	v190	v190	v190
35	Social group variables
36	Religion
37	Caste
38	Ethnicity			v131
39	Language of questionnaire	slang1	slangq	slangq	v045a
40	Language of interview	slang2	slangi	slangi	v045b
41	Native language of respondent	slang3	slangw	slangr	v045c
42	Family-structure variables
43	Relationship to hh head	hv101	hv101	hv101	hv101
44	De jure residents	hv102	hv102	hv102	hv102
45	De facto residents	hv103	hv103	hv103	hv103
46	Sex of hh member	hv104	hv104	hv104	hv104
47	Age of hh member	hv105	hv105	hv105	hv105
48	Highest education of hh member	hv106	hv106	hv106	hv106
49	Community-level variables
50	Distance to healthcare facility
51	Covered by health insurance				v481
52	Cluster altitude

START FROM HERE

Majority of variables have been compared and checked. Need to check for tobacco consumption and pregnancy calendar variables.