Integrated Demographic and Health Series (IDHS)

说明（由申请人提供）：人口和健康调查（DHS）包括来自90个发展中国家的260项具有全国代表性的家庭调查，是发展中国家紧迫的健康和人口问题的主要信息来源。尽管国土安全部具有明确的比较性质，但研究人员绝大多数使用这些数据进行单一调查分析。这有几个原因：当使用多个国土安全部调查时，文件是笨拙的；调查问题因时间和国家而异；而次国家区域间的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做出一些毫无根据的假设，同时导致他们远离其他有效的比较。人口与健康综合系列（IDHS）将开发综合数据、传播软件和相关元数据，从而大大简化国土安全部数据的比较分析。数据将通过创新的用户界面免费传播，这将改善搜索、发现、研究设计和数据访问。IDHS将减少研究人员重复工作的浪费，消除常见错误，使研究结果更容易复制，并在许多研究领域促进复杂和强大的新比较分析。这项工作可分为六个具体任务：(1)开发用户友好的基于web的数据访问工具，使研究人员能够利用国土安全部数据的比较潜力。(2)在交叉调查和具体可变的基础上提供查阅文件的机会。(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协调跨时间和空间的可变代码，并（尽可能）协调次国家地理代码。(5)开发工具，使用户能够轻松构建定制变量，利用嵌入在国土安全部数据复杂结构中的丰富信息，例如幸存的女性子女数量或被调查者配偶的年龄。(6)为所有国土安全部数据编译一致的结构化元数据。IDHS将为发展中国家提供最丰富的数据来源之一，并将为在全球范围内进行卫生、人口和经济比较调查开辟新的领域。

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.