Strengthening Evidence for Programming on Unintended Pregnancy, Developing and Validating Measures of Unintended Pregnancy and Reasons for Contraceptive Non-use among Married Women in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements

KENYA, 2016
Health and Well-Being (HaW)

African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

CSV JSON

age of woman at last birthday (stp_q102)

Data file: step up_round 1_ anon

Overview

vald 2822

invd 0

Interval discrete

Decimal 0

Range 17 - 9999995

Questions and instructions

Literal question

How old were you at your last birthday?

Categories

Value	Category	Cases
17		4	0.1%
18		13	0.5%
19		33	1.2%
20		57	2%
21		94	3.3%
22		142	5%
23		154	5.5%
24		153	5.4%
25		138	4.9%
26		168	6%
27		175	6.2%
28		187	6.6%
29		176	6.2%
30		204	7.2%
31		153	5.4%
32		168	6%
33		133	4.7%
34		157	5.6%
35		88	3.1%
36		122	4.3%
37		93	3.3%
38		140	5%
39		70	2.5%
9999995	missing:impute	0	0%

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.

Question pretext

Question post text

Interviewer instructions

This is one of the most important questions in the interview, since almost all analysis of the survey data depends on the respondent's age. You must ask Q. 102 even if the woman provided her birth date in response to Q. 101.

If the woman knows her age, write it in the space provided. If the woman does not know her age, you will need to use one of the following methods to estimate her age. (However, a check will inputted in the tablet to assist the interviewer estimate the age more accurately)

(a) If the year of birth is reported in Q. 101, compute the woman's age as follows:

• Already celebrated birthday in the current year. If the woman has had her birthday in the current year, subtract the year of birth from the current year [2016].
• Not yet celebrated birthday in the current year. If the woman has not yet had her birthday in the current year, subtract the year of birth from last year [2015].
• Does not know when her birthday is. If the woman does not keep track of the time within a year when her birthday falls, it is sufficient to subtract year of birth from the current year [2016].

(b) If the woman does not know her age, and year of birth is not reported in Q. 101, you will have to probe to try to estimate her age. There are several ways to probe for age:

1) Ask the respondent how old she was when she got married or had her first child, and then try to estimate how long ago she got married or had her first child.

Example: If she says she was 19 years old when she had her first child and that the child is now 12 years old, she is probably 31 years old.

2) Relate her age to that of someone else in the household whose age is more reliably known.

3) Try to determine how old she was at the time of an important event such as war, flood, earthquake, change in political regime, etc. and add her age at that time to the number of years that have passed since the event.

(c) The woman does not know her age and probing did not help.

If probing does not help in determining the respondent's age and date of birth was not recorded in Q. 102, you will have to estimate her age. Remember, this is a last resort to be used only when all your efforts at probing have failed.

Checking Consistency of Birth Date and Age Responses
If the woman answers both Qs. 101 and 102, i.e., she gives both her birth date and her age, you must check that her answers are consistent. There are two methods for checking whether the age and year of birth are consistent: the arithmetic method and the chart method. A detailed description of each method follows. You may use either method to check the consistency of birth date and age information.

Arithmetic Method
The arithmetic procedure requires that you first calculate the sum of the year of birth and the age. Use the margin of the questionnaire to do the necessary arithmetic. Then apply one of the following rules to determine if these responses are consistent.

(1) IF BOTH MONTH AND YEAR ARE RECORDED IN QUESTION 101

• If the month of birth is before the month of interview (the respondent has had her birthday this year), then her age plus the year of birth should equal the year of interview [2016].

Example: A respondent that you interview in September [2016] tells you that she was born in January 1989 and is [27] years old. Her responses are consistent, i.e., her month of birth (January) is before the month of interview (September) and the year of birth (1989) and age ([27]) sum to the year of interview ([2016]).

Another respondent that you interview in September [2016] says she was born in May 1991 and she is [23] years old. Her responses are inconsistent, i.e., her year of birth (1991) and age ([23]) sum to [2014] rather than to [2016] as would be expected given that her month of birth (May) is before the month of interview (September).

• If the month of birth is after the month of interview (she has not had her birthday this year), then her age plus her year of birth should equal the previous year [2015].

Example: A respondent interviewed in September [2016] tells you that she was born in December 1982 and is [33] years old. Her responses are consistent, i.e., her month of birth (December) is after the month of interview (September) and the year of birth (1982) and age ([33]) sum to the previous year ([2015]).

Another respondent interviewed in August [2016] says that she was born in September 1977 and is [39] years old. Her responses are inconsistent, i.e., her year of birth (1977) and age ([39]) sum to [2016] rather than to [2015] as would be expected given that her birth month (September) is after the month of interview (August).

• If the month of birth is the same as the month of interview, then a sum of either [2015] or [2016] is acceptable.

(2) IF ONLY YEAR OF BIRTH IS RECORDED IN Q. 101.

Add the year of birth to the respondent's age. Accept the sum if it is equal to either to the year of interview [2016] or the previous year [2015].

Example: A respondent tells you she was born in 1985 and is [31] years old. Her answers are consistent since the sum of her year of birth (1985) and her age ([31]) is [2016].

Another respondent tells you she was born in 1985 and her age is [30] years. Her responses are consistent since the sum of the year of birth (1985) and her age ([30]) is [2015].

A third respondent tells you that she was born in 1985 and is [32] years old. Her responses are inconsistent since the sum of her year of birth and her age ([32]) is [2017].

Chart Method
You may use the Age/Birth-Date Consistency Chart (Figure 1) to check the consistency of the information the respondent provides. In using the chart, you will choose one of two approaches, depending on the type of information you have recorded in Q.101.

(1) IF BOTH MONTH AND YEAR ARE RECORDED IN Q. 101.

Enter the chart at the age you recorded in Q. 102. If the month of birth is before the month of interview (she has already had her birthday this year), use the right hand column to see what year of birth is consistent with that age. If the month of birth is after the month of interview (she has not yet had her birthday this year), use the left hand column to see what year of birth is consistent with that age.

If the year of birth recorded in Q. 101 is not the same as the year of birth in the chart, then Qs. 101 and 102 are inconsistent and you will have to make a correction.

(2) IF ONLY YEAR OF BIRTH IS RECORDED IN Q. 101.

Enter the chart at the age you recorded in Q. 102. The year of birth listed in either the left or right hand column is consistent with that age.

If the year of birth recorded in Q. 101 is not the same as one of the two years of birth recorded in the chart, then Qs. 101 and 102 are inconsistent and you will have to make a correction.

HOW TO CORRECT INCONSISTENT ANSWERS
If the recorded birth date (Q. 101) does not agree the age in Q. 102, you must correct the inconsistency. Do this by further probing and adjusting the age, the birth date, or both. It is important to understand that either or both of the two pieces of information may be incorrect. Do not always assume that an inconsistency means, for instance, that the date of birth was given correctly and that the age is incorrect. It could be that the date or the age or both the date and the age are incorrect.

Remember, you MUST fill in an answer to Q.102.

Description

Text

The age of the woman at her last birthday.

Universe

All married (living together with a partner)women aged 15-39 living in the households.

others

Notes

"System calculated age is age:102 How old were you at your last birthday?"