Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) (1988)

Description

In the 1988 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS), 8,911 ever-married women between the ages of 15 and 49 were interviewed, in urban and rural areas of 21 of the 26 governorates of Egypt. Topics included fertility, mortality, family planning and maternal and child health indicators.

Collaborating institutions

The Egypt DHS was carried out by the National Population Council (NPC). The Institute for Resource Development (IRD), a Macro Systems Company, provided technical assistance for the survey through the Demographic and Health Surveys program.

Sponsor

United States Agency for International Development

Objectives of the Study

The Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) has as its major objective the provision of current and reliable information on fertility, mortality, family planning and maternal and child health indicators. The information is intended to assist policy makers and administrators in Egyptian population and health agencies to: (1) assess the effect of ongoing family planning and maternal and child health programs and (2) improve planning for future interventions in these areas. The EDHS provides data on topics for which comparable data are not available from previous nationally representative surveys, as well as information needed to monitor trends in a number of indicators derived from earlier surveys, in particular, the 1980 Egypt Fertility Survey (EFS) and the 1980 and 1984 Egypt Contraceptive Prevalence Surveys (ECPS). Finally as part of the worldwide Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program, the EDHS is intended to add to an international body of data, which can be used for cross-national research on these topics.

Survey Design and Implementation

Geographical Coverage

The EDHS was carried out in 21 of the 26 governorates in Egypt. The Frontier Governorates (Red Sea, New Valley, Matrouh, North Sinai, and South Sinai), which represent around two percent of the total population in Egypt, were excluded from coverage because a disproportionate share of EDHS resources would have been needed to survey the dispersed population in these governorates.

The EDHS sample was designed to provide separate estimates of all major parameters for: the national level, the Urban Governorates, Lower Egypt (total, urban and rural) and Upper Egypt (total, urban and rural). In addition, the sample was selected in such a fashion as to yield a sufficient number of respondents from each governorate to allow for governorate-level estimates of current contraceptive use. In order to achieve the latter objective, sample takes for the following governorates were increased during the selection process: Port Said, Suez, Ismailia, Damietta, Aswan, Kafr El-Sheikh, Beni Suef and Fayoum.

Sampling Plan

The sampling plan called for the EDHS sample to be selected in three stages. The sampling units at the first stage were shiakhas/towns in urban areas and villages in rural areas. The frame for the selection of the primary sampling units (PSU), was based on preliminary results from 1986 Egyptian census, which were provided by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. During the first stage selection, 228 primary sampling units (108 shiakhas/towns and 120 villages) were sampled.

The second stage of selection called for the PSUs chosen during the first stage to be segmented into smaller areal units and for two of the areal units to be sampled from each PSU. In urban PSUs, a quick count operation was carried out to provide the information needed to select the secondary sampling units (SSU) while for rural PSUs, maps showing the residential area within the selected villages were used.

Following the selection of the SSUs, a household listing was obtained for each of the selected units. Using the household lists, a systematic random sample of households was chosen for the EDHS. All ever-married women 15-49 present in the sampled households during the night before the interviewer's visit were eligible for the individual, interview.

Quick Count and Listing

As noted in the discussion of the sampling plan, two separate field operations were conducted during the sample implementation phase of the EDHS. The first field operation involved a quick count in the shiakhas/towns selected as PSUs in urban areas. Prior to the quick count operation, maps for each of the selected shiakhas/towns were obtained and divided into approximately equal-sized segments, with each segment having well-defined boundaries. The objective of the quick count operation was to obtain an estimate of the number of households in each of the segments to serve as the measures of size for the second stage selection.

A review of the preliminary 1986 Census population totals for the selected shiakhas/towns showed that they varied greatly in total size, ranging from less than 10,000 to more than 275,000 residents. Experience in the 1984 Egypt Contraceptive Prevalence Survey, in which a similar quick count operation was carried out, indicated that it was very time-consuming to obtain counts of households in shiakhas/towns with large populations. In order to reduce the quick count workload during the EDHS, a subsample of segments was selected from the shiakhas/towns, with 50,000 or more population. The number of segments subsampled depended on the size of the shiakha. Only the subsampled segments were covered during the quick count operation in the large shiakhas/towns. For shiakhas less than 50,000 population, all segments were covered during the quick count.

Prior to the quick count, a one-week training was held, including both classroom instruction and practical training in shiakhas/towns not covered in the survey. The quick count operation, which covered all 108 urban PSUs, was carried out between June and August 1988. A group of 62 field staff participated in the quick count operation. The field staff was divided into ten teams, each composed of one supervisor and three to four counters.

As a quality control measure, the quick count was repeated in 10 percent of the shaikhas. Discrepancies noted when the results of the second quick count operation were compared with the original counts were checked. No major problems were discovered in this matching process, with most differences in the counts attributed to problems in the identification of segment boundaries.

The second field operation during the sample implementation phase of the survey involved a complete listing of all of the households living in the 456 segments chosen during the second stage of the sample selection. Prior to the household listing, the listing staff attended a one-week training course, which involved both classroom lectures and field practice. After the training, the 14 supervisors and 32 listers were organized into teams; except in Damietta and Ismailia, where the listers work on their own, each listing team was composed of a supervisor and two listers. The listing operation began in the middle of September and was completed in October 1988.

Segments were relisted when the number of households in the listing differed markedly from that expected based on: (1) the quick count in urban areas or (2) the number of households estimated from the information on the size of the inhabited area for rural segments. Few discrepancies were noted for urban segments. Not surprisingly, more problems were noted for rural segments since the estimated size of the segment was not based on a recent count as it was for the urban segments. All segments where major differences were noted in the matching process were relisted in order to resolve the problems.

Coverage of the Sample

A total of 10,528 households was selected for the EDHS sample. 661 of the selected households were considered to be ineligible for interview because no household member had slept in the dwelling on the night before the interview, the dwelling in which the selected household had resided was vacant or destroyed or the household could not be contacted for other reasons. Among the remaining 9,867 eligible households, 9,805, or 99 percent, were successfully interviewed.

As noted, an eligible respondent for the individual survey was defined as an ever-married woman between the ages of 15 and 49 years who was present in a sampled household during the night before the household interview. A total of 9,095 eligible respondents were identified, and 8,911 (98 percent) of these women were interviewed. The overall response rate, which is the product of the household and individual response rates, was 97 percent in the EDHS.

There was almost no variation in the household, individual or overall response rates between urban and rural areas. By governorate, the household response rate ranged from 98 percent in Suez to 100 percent in Kafr El-Sheikh, Gharbia, Ismailia, Fayoum and Aswan while individual response rate varied from 94 percent in Aswan to 100 percent in Ismailia.