IHSN Survey Catalog
  • Home
  • Microdata Catalog
  • Citations
  • Login
    Login
    Home / Central Data Catalog / GHA_2008_DHS_V01_M_V02_A_IPUMS / variable [H]
central

Demographic and Health Survey 2008 - IPUMS Subset

Ghana, 2008
Get Microdata
Reference ID
GHA_2008_DHS_v01_M_v02_A_IPUMS
Producer(s)
Ghana Statistical Service, Ghana Health Service, and ICF Macro., Minnesota Population Center
Metadata
DDI/XML JSON
Created on
Sep 19, 2018
Last modified
Sep 19, 2018
Page views
114859
  • Study Description
  • Data Dictionary
  • Get Microdata
  • Data files
  • GHA2008-B.dat
  • GHA2008-C.dat
  • GHA2008-H.dat
  • GHA2008-M.dat
  • GHA2008-W.dat

Height for age standard deviations (new WHO) (members under age 5) (H_HWCHAZWHO)

Data file: GHA2008-H.dat

Overview

Type: Discrete
Decimal: 0
Start: 610
End: 613
Width: 4
Range: -
Format: Numeric

Questions and instructions

Literal question
506. HEIGHT IN CENTIMETERS

CHILD HEIGHT

CM ____.__
Categories
Value Category
9996 Age in days out of plausible limits
9997 Flagged cases
9998 Missing
9999 NIU (not in universe)
9995 Height out of plausible limits
Warning: these figures indicate the number of cases found in the data file. They cannot be interpreted as summary statistics of the population of interest.

Description

Definition
For household members under age 5, HWCHAZWHO (HC70) reports the difference between their height and the median height of a reference population of the same age and sex, expressed in units equal to one standard deviation of the reference population's distribution. An anthropometry measure expressed in reference standard deviation units is also known as a Z-score. HWCHAZWHO values are reported in units equal to 100 times the Z-score, to preserve two decimal places without requiring the use of a decimal point. Dividing HWCHAZWHO by 100 will yield a height-for-age Z-score (HAZ) value.

Low height-for-age, or "stunting," is an indicator of chronic malnutrition. The WHO Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition [URL omitted from DDI.] considers a height-for-age Z-score (HAZ) between -2 and -3 to represent moderate chronic malnutrition, and HAZ below -3 to represent severe chronic malnutrition.

Reference populations used to generate HWCHAZWHO draw from the WHO Multicenter Growth Reference Study (MGRS) [URL omitted from DDI.] released in 2006, which defined new standard anthropometry curves using a globally diverse reference population intended to reflect healthy growth conditions. For DHS samples that preceded WHO MGRS release, DHS retroactively calculated height-for-age Z scores using WHO MGRS reference data.

Prior to the WHO MGRS, DHS anthropometry reference populations drew from 1978 U.S. CDC National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) international growth reference [URL omitted from DDI.], which was the previous international standard reference. The DHS variable HWCHAZNCHS (HC5) reports the young household member's height-for-age Z-score value using the NCHS/CDC 1978 reference population. DHS has continued to release versions of all child anthropometric variables using NCHS/CDC 1978 reference populations, to preserve comparability with samples preceding the 2006 WHO MGRS release.

HWCHEIGHT (HC3) reports the young household member's length or height as measured by DHS personnel. See this variable and HWCHTHOWMEAS (HC15) for specifics on length/height measurement. The related variable AGEMOHHLT5 (HC1) reports age in months at the time of measurement.

concept

Concept
var_concept.title Vocabulary
Child anthropometry Variables -- TOPICS IPUMS
Back to Catalog
IHSN Survey Catalog

© IHSN Survey Catalog, All Rights Reserved.