Append IPUMS_Merge to DHS Data

GLOBAL HEALTH
1

Hello, Thanks for your recent updates re IPUMS. I have a question about linking merged data produced by IMPUMS to similar dataset from the DHS.

I am examining HIV risk behaviors in sub-Saharan Africa, and will be using data from the following countries:

Angola
Benin
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Chad
Congo
Congo Democratic Republic
Cote d’Ivoire
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Malawi
Mali
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Rwanda
Senegal
Sierra Leone
South Africa
Tanzania
Togo
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe

I plan to use IPUMS to create a pooled dataset containing selected/harmonized variables of interest. However, IPUMS currently does not have data for the following countries (unless I am mistaken):

Chad
Gabon
Liberia
Sierra Leone
Togo
Swaziland/Eswatini

If this is the case, my plan is to go ahead generate the pooled dataset using IPUMS. I have access to the data for these subset of six countries. How do I append them to the IPUMS harmonized version and ensure that is is truly harmonized - with variable and value/labels?

thanks - Yawo

2

You are correct that IPUMS DHS does not currently include data from Chad, Gabon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo, or Swaziland. Unfortunately, the process of harmonizing data which is available directly from the DHS Program but not yet available via IPUMS DHS is relatively time-intensive. This is why there is always a lag between when data is available via the DHS Program website and when the harmonized sample is available via IPUMS DHS. Using the documentation available on our online data extract system, you will need to manually re-code the variables you are interested in using so that the variable names, codes, and labels are harmonized for your entire pooled data set.

3

This question was also posted on the DHS User Forum. For more information, see the responses there.