Interviewer instructions
If “1 year”, probe: how many months old was (name)?
For children who have died, you must record information about age at death even if the information is only a best estimate. Age at death information is recorded either in days, months, or years, according to a specific set of rules:
· If the child was less than one month old at death, circle '1' and write the answer in 'Days' to the space provided, if necessary, with a leading zero, such as “08”.
· If the child was less than two years old but at least one month old when he or she died, circle '2' and write the answer in 'Months', again with a leading zero if necessary.
· If the child was two years old or older when he or she died, circle '3' and write the answer in 'Years'.
(Note: You should never record '00' months or '00' or '01' years if the interviewer instruction is followed correctly)
You should record the answer in completed units, i.e., if she says “four and a half months,” record Months '04.' Note that if the respondent gives you an answer in weeks, you must convert the answer to days or months. If the answer is less than one month (less than four weeks), probe to find out the exact age at death in days. For example, if the answer is “three weeks,” probe for the number of days. If the mother says '19 days', record Days '19.' If the answer is one or more months (four weeks or more), you would convert the answer to months. An answer of “seven weeks” would be recorded as Months '01.'
Similarly, if the respondent answers “one year,” you need to probe to find the exact number of months. We know that if a child died at the age of 10, 11, 12, 13, or 14 months, a woman is likely to round her answer because she does not know that we need the exact age. This means that she is likely to respond “one year old” even if the child really was 10 months or 13 months old. Therefore, any time a woman responds “one year” to this question, probe by asking, “How many months old was (name)?” Record the answer in completed months.
Note that this is a table of children who were born alive. If the respondent says that the baby was not alive when it was born, probe by saying, “Did the baby cry or show any sign of life when it was born?” If she says the baby was dead when it was born, cross out the entry in the table. Make sure to renumber the remaining births when this occurs.
If you are following the skip pattern correctly, you will only be asking this question for children who have died.
