Retrieving age of daughter at circumcision

GLOBAL HEALTH
1

Hello everyone,

I am working on the Women’s Recode for several waves across 18 Central and West African countries. I aim to assess the cutting status of daughters (ideally including age at cutting) when available.

For early waves, I use the FCCIRCDAU variable, which provides the cutting status of the oldest daughter.
For later waves, I use FCDCIRC, which gives the cutting status of all daughters, and FCDAGE, which provides the age at cutting for the corresponding daughters.

For the remaining waves, I intend to use FCAGEDAU, which, according to its description, “reports the age of the woman’s eldest daughter when she was circumcised.” However, things get a bit messier when looking at the survey text.

  • In most cases (e.g., Guinea 1999, Benin 2001), the question asked is: “How old was (NAME OF THE DAUGHTER FROM Q. 911/1011/1111/1211/1311) when this occurred?” The referenced question varies across surveys but always refers to “the most recently cut daughter”—who may not be the eldest.
  • In other cases (e.g., Kenya 1998, Nigeria 1999), the question reads: “How old was she when she was circumcised?”, following a question that explicitly asks: “Is (NAME OF ELDEST DAUGHTER) circumcised?” This suggests that in some cases, the variable aligns with its description, while in others, it does not.

My two questions are:
(i) Are my interpretations correct, or have I missed something?
(ii) Is there a way to retrieve comparable information on the age at cutting for waves where the question focuses on the most recently cut daughter?

I hope this isn’t too convoluted. Many thanks in advance for your help.

2

Your interpretation of these variables appears correct to me. FCDAGE_ALL reports the ages at cutting of each of the respondent’s daughters. The availability tab for this variable notes that it is provided for 15 countries in total, including for 11 Central and West African countries during survey phases 6 & 7. While FCAGEDAU is available for samples in survey phases 3-5, you are correct that this variable alternatively reports the age at cutting of the woman’s eldest daughter or the age at cutting of the most recently cut daughter. The universe tab for this variable provides a helpful overview for whether the sample refers to the former (universe statements that include “whose eldest living daughter is circumcised”) or latter (“with at least one living daughter who is circumcised”) definition. Regarding the Nigeria 1999 sample, the DHS Program notes that it “was not centrally involved in this survey and cannot stand behind the quality of this survey.”

You might create a comparable measure across these samples that reports the age at cutting of the respondent’s eldest daughter. For FCAGEDAU, the variable FCDLINENUM reports the line number of the most recently cut daughter. This variable can be used together with HHAGE on the household member’s unit to determine whether the age reported in FCAGEDAU refers to the eldest daughter or to a younger daughter. A consistent measure for FCAGEDAU would apply the same universe across samples by reassigning a code of 99 (“NIU”) to all households where this variable refers to a younger daughter.