Sampling Procedure
The sample for the second South Sudan Household Health Survey (SHHS 2) was designed to provide estimates for a large number of indicators on the situation of children and women at the national level, for urban and rural areas, and for the 10 states across the country: The said States are Upper Nile, Jonglei, Unity, Warap Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Western Bahr El Ghazal, Lakes, Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria.
The sampling frame used for the SHHS 2 is the 2008 Sudan Population and Housing Census. States were identified as the sampling domains or domains of analysis. The sample uses 20 urban and rural strata, two per State.
The sample size for the survey was determined by the degree of precision required for survey estimates for each state: 1,000 households in each state. Since a similar level of precision was required for the survey results from each state, it was decided to draw 40 clusters from each state and 25 households from each cluster. However, in each of Unity and Jonglei states only 39 clusters were selected and that yields 975 households by state. The total sample was finally 9,950 households or 398 clusters (enumeration areas).
The sample was selected in two stages: within each State, enumeration areas were randomly selected with probability proportional to size as primary sampling units. After a household listing was carried out within the selected enumeration areas, a sample of 25 households was drawn in each sampled enumeration area.
Response Rate
Of the 9,950 households selected for the sample, 9,760 were found to be occupied. Of these, 9,369 were successfully interviewed for a household response rate of 96 percent. In the interviewed households, 11,568 women (age 15-49 years) were identified. Of these, 9,069 were successfully interviewed, yielding a response rate of 78 percent within interviewed households. In addition, 8,656 men (age 15-49 years) were listed in the household questionnaire. Questionnaires were completed for 4,345 of eligible men, which corresponds to a response rate of 50 percent within interviewed households. There were 10,040 children under age five listed in the household questionnaire. Questionnaires were completed for 8,338 of these children, which corresponds to a response rate of 83 percent within interviewed households. Overall response rates of 75, 48, and 80 are calculated for the women’s, men’s and under-5’s interviews respectively. See Table HH.1 of the survey report.
Across the 10 States, women’s response rates, except Northern Bahr el Ghazal, are below 85 percent. The results for these States should thus be interpreted with some caution, as their response rates are low. The response rates for the children under five years of age in 5 of the 10 States were equally low. These are Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria, Unity, Upper Nile and Lakes States. These results are low, and therefore interpretation in these States should also be handled with caution. Response rates for urban and rural areas for the three categories (women, men and children under-five) are also below 85 percent; this as well requires some caution in the interpretation of the results. Crucially, response for the men’s module was exceedingly low, as their overall response rate is 48. Accordingly, all analysis on men was dropped from the survey report.