Survey ID Number
EGY_2000_DHS_v01_M
Title
Demographic and Health Survey 2000
Data Collection Notes
Staff Recruitment
To recruit interviewers and field editors, a list was obtained from the Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) of female personnel who were working to fulfill the one-year period of governmental public service that is mandatory for university graduates. All candidates nominated by MOSA for the field staff positions were interviewed, and only those who were qualified were accepted into the training program.
All candidates for the interviewer and field editor positions were recent university graduates. Another basic qualification was a willingness to work in any of the governorates covered in the survey. With a few exceptions, interviewers who had previous experience in surveys were not accepted into the training program. This decision was made to reduce any bias that might result from previous survey experience and to ensure that all trainees had a similar background. However, previous survey experience was a basic qualification for the candidates for the positions of supervisor.
All of the staff recruited for the anemia testing were required to have a medical background. Some were assigned by the MOHP, and others were recruited from among newly graduated physicians.
Training Materials
A variety of materials were developed for use in training personnel involved in the fieldwork. A lengthy interviewer’s manual, including general guidelines for conducting an interview as well as specific instructions for asking each of the questions in the EDHS questionnaires, was prepared and given to all field staff. In addition, a chart for converting months from the Islamic calendar to the Gregorian calendar was designed for the 74 months before the 2000 EDHS and distributed to all field staff.
Other training materials, including special manuals describing the duties of the team supervisor and the rules for field editing, were prepared. Instructions for anthropometric data collection were included in a manual for the staff trained to collect height and weight data. A special manual covering the procedures to be followed in the anemia testing was also prepared.
Training for Supervisors and Interviewers
A special training program for supervisors was conducted during a three-day period prior to the main fieldwork training. This training focused specifically on the supervisor’s duties, but it also covered the 2000 EDHS questionnaires in order to give supervisors a basic understanding of the content of the survey prior to the main training program.
Training for interviewers for the 2000 EDHS data collection began in mid-January 2000. Twenty supervisors, 88 interviewers, and 34 anemia-testing and anthropometric-data-collection staff participated in the training program. This five-week training program, which was held in Cairo, included the following:
- Lectures related to basic interview techniques and to specific survey topics (e.g., fertility and family planning, maternal and child health, and female circumcision)
- Sessions on how to fill out the questionnaire, using visual aids
- Role playing and mock interviews
- Four days of field practice in areas not covered in the survey
- Nine quizzes.
Trainees who failed to show interest in the survey, who did not attend the training program on a regular basis, or who failed the first three quizzes were terminated immediately. At the beginning of the third week of training, a list was prepared of the 17 trainees who had performed best during both the classroom and field practices. These trainees were further examined to select 13 field editors. A special training session was held for the field editors after their selection. By the end of the training course, 63 of the 88 candidates originally recruited for interviewer training had been selected to work as interviewers or field editors in the EDHS fieldwork.
Training for Anthropometric-data-collection and Anemia-testing staff
Thirty-four personnel
were selected for training in anthropometric data collection and anemia testing. The training included both classroom lectures and practice measurement and blood testing in a nursery school, in health facilities, and in households. At the end of the program, the 26 most-qualified trainees were selected for the anthropometric data collection and anemia testing. As discussed earlier, all of the personnel involved in the anemia testing had a medical background. Most were medical school graduates.
Fieldwork
Fieldwork for the 2000 EDHS began on February 23, 2000 and was completed in late April 2000. A total of 105 staff members, including 1 fieldwork coordinator, 2 assistant fieldwork coordinators, 13 supervisors, 13 field editors, and 50 interviewers were responsible for the data collection. In addition, 26 staff members were responsible for the anthropometric measurement and anemia testing. All supervisors were males, while the field editors and interviewers were females. One male and one female staff member were involved in the anthropometric measurement and the anemia testing.
The field staff was divided into 13 teams; each team had 1 supervisor, 1 field editor, 3 to 4 interviewers, and 2 staff members assigned to height and weight measurement and anemia testing. During the fieldwork, the 13 field teams worked in separate governorates; the number of governorates assigned to an individual team varied from one to three, according to the sample size in the governorates.
As soon as the main data collection was completed in the first group of governorates, a random sample of up to 10 percent of the households was selected for reinterview as a quality control measure. Shorter versions of the 2000 EDHS questionnaires were prepared and used for the reinterviews. The visits to PSUs to conduct reinterviews also afforded an opportunity to make callbacks to complete interviews with households or individuals who were not available at the time of the original visit by the 2000 EDHS interviewers. Household or individual questionnaires in which there were significant errors that could not be corrected in the office were also assigned for callbacks. Special teams were organized to handle callbacks and reinterviews. During this phase of the survey, interviewers were not allowed to work in the governorate in which they had worked in the initial fieldwork. Callbacks and reinterviews began on April 15, 2000 and were completed by May 15, 2000.