Integrated Demographic and Health Series (IDHS)

说明（申请人提供）：人口与健康调查，包括来自90个发展中国家的260个具有全国代表性的住户调查，是关于发展中国家紧迫的健康和人口问题的主要信息来源。尽管DHS具有明确的比较性质，但研究人员绝大多数都使用这些数据进行单一调查分析。这有几个原因：在使用多项人口与健康调查时，文件不便于使用;调查问题随时间和国家的不同而不同;次国家区域可比性往往难以评估。此外，目前的工具无意中诱使研究人员对可比性进行一些毫无根据的假设，同时使他们远离其他有效的比较。人口与健康综合系列将开发综合数据、传播软件和相关元数据，大大简化人口与健康调查数据的比较分析。这些数据将通过一个创新的用户界面免费传播，该界面将改善搜索、发现、研究设计和数据访问。IDHS将减少浪费的重复研究工作，消除常见的错误，使研究结果更容易复制，并促进在许多研究领域的复杂和强大的新的比较分析。这项工作可分为六项具体任务：（1）开发用户友好的基于网络的数据访问工具，使研究人员能够利用人口与健康调查数据的比较潜力。(2)在交叉调查和特定变量的基础上提供对文件的访问。(3)创建搜索和发现工具，使研究人员能够在调查中找到变量。(4)在不丢失信息的情况下，统一跨时间和空间的可变编码，并（尽可能）统一国家以下各级的地理编码。(5)制作工具，使用户能够方便地构建定制变量，利用人口与健康调查数据复杂结构中的丰富信息，如幸存女童人数或受访者配偶的年龄。(6)为所有国土安全部数据汇编结构一致的元数据。IDHS将为发展中国家提供最丰富的数据源之一，并将为全球范围内的健康，人口统计和经济学的比较研究开辟新的领域。 公共卫生相关性：该项目旨在创建综合人口与健康系列数据传播系统，与国家卫生研究所的中心使命直接相关。人口与健康调查是关于发展中世界紧迫问题的主要信息来源，这些问题包括生育率、计划生育、妇幼保健、两性关系、艾滋病毒/艾滋病、疟疾和营养。拟议的IDHS将通过解锁最全面的比较数据源，促进发展中国家对健康和人口动态的基本了解。它将为在全球范围内调查健康和福祉开辟广阔的新领域。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), including 260 nationally-representative household surveys from 90 developing countries, are the principal source of information on pressing health and demographic issues in the developing world. Despite the explicitly comparative nature of DHS, researchers have overwhelmingly used these data to conduct single-survey analyses. There are several reasons for this: the documentation is unwieldy when using multiple DHS surveys; survey questions vary over time and across countries; and sub- national regional comparability is often difficult to assess. Furthermore, current tools inadvertently lure researchers into some unwarranted assumptions about comparability while leading them away from other valid comparisons. The Integrated Demographic and Health Series (IDHS) will develop integrated data, dissemination software, and associated metadata that will make comparative analyses of DHS data dramatically easier. The data will be disseminated without cost through an innovative user interface that will improve search, discovery, research design, and data access. IDHS will reduce wasteful duplication of researcher effort, eliminate common errors, make findings easier to replicate, and facilitate sophisticated and powerful new comparative analyses in many research domains. The work can be divided into six specific tasks: (1) Develop user-friendly web-based data access tools so researchers can exploit the comparative potential of DHS data. (2) Provide access to documentation on a cross-survey and variable-specific basis. (3) Create search and discovery tools to allow researchers to locate variables across surveys. (4) Harmonize variable codes across time and space, without loss of information, and (whenever possible) harmonize sub-national geographic codes. (5) Produce tools allowing users to easily construct customized variables that capitalize on rich information embedded in the complex structure of DHS data, such as the number of surviving female children or the age of the respondent's spouse. (6) Compile consistently structured metadata for all DHS data. IDHS will unlock access to one of the richest data sources for the developing world, and will open up new terrain for comparative investigation of health, demography, and economics in a global context. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project to create the Integrated Demographic and Health Series (IDHS) data dissemination system is directly relevant to the central mission of the National Institutes of Health. The Demographic and Health Surveys are the principal source of information on pressing issues in the developing world, such as fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, gender relations, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and nutrition. The proposed IDHS will advance fundamental knowledge about health and population dynamics across the developing world by unlocking access to the most comprehensive comparative data source. It will open up vast new terrain for investigations of health and well-being in a global context.