DHS have a particular focus on infants, children and women. This means that there is limited data on adult mortality, other than maternal mortality. Therefore DHS may not be suitable for studying the health of ageing populations, or for comparative analyses of the mortality of adults of different socioeconomic status or between men and women.

Similarly, DHS provide limited data on broader health outcomes. The focus on mortality and fertility outcomes, and the nutritional status of women and young children means that there is less data on the prevalence and outcomes of wider communicable and non-communicable diseases. However this is changing, with questions on tuberculosis, use of tobacco, etc. being added.

Surveys are carried out independently within countries, and are done on a continuous basis. This means that many countries do not carry out surveys in the same year, which limits the ability to carry out contemporaneous cross-national comparative analyses.