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MEASURING COVERAGE IN MNCH: TRACKING PROGRESS IN HEALTH FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN USING DHS AND MICS HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS

Wednesday, 12th of June 2013

• MEASURING COVERAGE IN MNCH: TRACKING PROGRESS IN HEALTH FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN USING DHS AND MICS HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS

Full text, with figures, is at http://www.ploscollections.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001391

Abstract

Household surveys are the primary data source of coverage indicators for children and women for most developing countries. Most of this information is generated by two global household survey programmes—the USAID-supported Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the UNICEF-supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). In this review, we provide an overview of these two programmes, which cover a wide range of child and maternal health topics and provide estimates of many Millennium Development Goal indicators, as well as estimates of the indicators for the Countdown to 2015 initiative and the Commission on Information and Accountability for Womens and Childrens Health. MICS and DHS collaborate closely and work through interagency processes to ensure that survey tools are harmonized and comparable as far as possible, but we highlight differences between DHS and MICS in the population covered and the reference periods used to measure coverage. These differences need to be considered when comparing estimates of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health indicators across countries and over time and we discuss the implications of these differences for coverage measurement. Finally, we discuss the need for survey planners and consumers of survey results to understand the strengths, limitations, and constraints of coverage measurements generated through household surveys, and address some technical issues surrounding sampling and quality control. We conclude that, although much effort has been made to improve coverage measurement in household surveys, continuing efforts are needed, including further research to improve and refine survey methods and analytical techniques.

Citation: Hancioglu A, Arnold F (2013) Measuring Coverage in MNCH: Tracking Progress in Health for Women and Children Using DHS and MICS Household Surveys. PLoS Med 10(5): e1001391. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001391

Academic Editor: Nyovani Madise, Professor of Demography and Social Statistics, University of Southampton, United Kingdom

Published: May 7, 2013

Copyright: © 2013 Hancioglu, Arnold. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: This work was conducted under the auspices of the Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group (CHERG) for WHO and UNICEF, with financial support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through their grant to the US Fund for UNICEF. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Abbreviations: AIS, AIDS Indicator Surveys; DHS, Demographic and Health Surveys; MICS, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys; MIS, Malaria Indicator Surveys; RMNCH, reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health

Provenance: Submitted as part of a sponsored Collection; externally reviewed.

This paper is part of the PLOS Medicine “Measuring Coverage in MNCH" Collection.