Questionnaires
The 2012-13 PDHS used four types of questionnaires: Household Questionnaire, Woman’s Questionnaire, Man’s Questionnaire, and Community Questionnaire. The contents of the Household, Woman’s, and Man’s Questionnaires were based on model questionnaires developed by the MEASURE DHS program. However, the questionnaires were modified, in consultation with a broad spectrum of research institutions, government departments, and local and international organizations, to reflect issues relevant to the Pakistani population, including migration status, family planning, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, and maternal and child health. A series of questionnaire design meetings were organized by NIPS, and discussions from these meetings were used to finalize the survey questionnaires. The questionnaires were then translated into Urdu and Sindhi and pretested, after which they were further refined. The questionnaires were presented to the Technical Advisory Committee for final approval.
The Household Questionnaire was used to list the usual members and visitors in the selected households. Basic information was collected on the characteristics of each person listed, including age, sex, marital status, education, and relationship to the head of the household. Data on current school attendance, migration status, and survivorship of parents among those under age 18 were also collected. The questionnaire also provided the opportunity to identify ever-married women and men age 15-49 who were eligible for individual interviews and children age 0-5 eligible for anthropometry measurements. The Household Questionnaire collected information on characteristics of the dwelling unit as well, such as the source of drinking water; type of toilet facilities; type of cooking fuel; materials used for the floor, roof, and walls of the house; and ownership of durable goods, agricultural land, livestock/farm animals/poultry, and mosquito nets.
The Woman’s Questionnaire was used to collect information from ever-married women age 15-49 on the following topics:
• Background characteristics (education, literacy, native tongue, marital status, etc.)
• Reproductive history
• Knowledge and use of family planning methods
• Fertility preferences
• Antenatal, delivery, and postnatal care
• Breastfeeding and infant feeding practices
• Vaccinations and childhood illnesses
• Woman’s work and husband’s background characteristics
• Infant and childhood mortality
• Women’s decision making
• Awareness about AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections
• Other health issues (e.g., knowledge of tuberculosis and hepatitis, injection safety)
• Domestic violence
Similarly, the Man’s Questionnaire, used to collect information from ever-married men age 15-49, covered the following topics:
• Background characteristics
• Knowledge and use of family planning methods
• Fertility preferences
• Employment and gender roles
• Awareness about AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections
• Other health issues
The Community Questionnaire, a brief form completed for each rural sample point, included questions about the availability of various types of health facilities and other services, particularly transportation, education, and communication facilities.
All elements of the PDHS data collection activities were pretested in June 2012. Three teams were formed for the pretest, each consisting of a supervisor, a male interviewer, and three female interviewers. One team worked in the Sukkur and Khairpur districts in the province of Sindh, another in the Peshawar and Charsadda districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the third in the district of Rawalpindi in Punjab. Each team covered one rural and one urban non-sample area.