Using DHS Data

Introduction

One of the advantages of DHS data is that it is freely available to researchers (after filling in an application form that can be found on the Measure DHS website), and is widely used within the research community. A recent systematic review showed that between 1984 and 2010 there were 1117 studies that used DHS data published in over 200 journals (Short Fabic et al. 2012). This is in addition to the use made of DHS data by governments and researchers for creating evidence-based policy and monitoring of health and development programmes.

To be able to use DHS data for analysis there are some general principles that it is important to understand, and which are the focus of the following pages. No specific instructions on the use of statistical programmes are given, as DHS data files are available in multiple formats (CSPro, SAS, STATA and SPSS).