Stratification, Social Mobility and Fertility Survey (1995)

Description

The sample of the poverty study was designed based on the Egypt 1992 Demographic and Health Survey sample frame. It is a multi-stage national probability sample representing all Egypt. The sample included 100 primary sampling units (PSUs). The design of the sample permits disaggregating of the data to the regional and urban/rural levels, however it doesn’t allow disaggregating to the level of governorates.

The size of the target sample was fixed at 6690 households, of which 6156 households have completed the interview questionnaires, thus yielding a response rate of 92%.

Fieldwork
The fieldwork for this study was conducted during the period April 12, 1995 through September 15, 1995.

Implementing Agency
The Social Research Center of the American University in Cairo

Related publications

Nagi, 1998 (1)

Nagi, 1998 (2)

Contact person
src@aucegypt.edu

This questionnaire has been administrated to 6156 cases (households). It contains 5 major sections as briefly described below:

• Identification and Basic Information Section:
It includes basic information about the PSUs and the households, in addition to information related to household members. This section also contains the key variables that are important for linking (matching) the data files.

• Section 1: Living Conditions
It contains information about the household type of ownership, environmental conditions and possession of durable consumer goods.

• Section 2: Household Expenditure
This section provides information on the household expenditure on different food items, health care, living expenses, taxes, fees, and transportation. etc. In addition to information on consumption of home products, and contribution of household members to the household expenditures.

• Section 3: Household Necessities
The questions in this section include information about affordability of the basic needs (Food, Clothing, Rent, Health Care, and Education), the philanthropy and its sources, and the coping strategies. It also contains information about the monthly or annual income and ownership of land, buildings, enterprises, savings, and other income generating sources (cars, trucks, tractors, equipment …etc).

• Section 4: Interviewer's Observation on Living Conditions
This section includes interviewer's observation on the type of dwelling, the main building materials of dwelling, the type of floor material and its cover, and the main type of lighting.


The data gathered through the Household questionnaire is allocated into 6 data files (created and saved in SPSS v6.00 for Windows format). The structure of these 6 data files has 2 types; one is the household level type of data, and the other is the individual level type of data. For the Household level, the variable PSUSEG is the key identifier. PSUSEG is constructed out of 3 variables namely, PSU Number, Segment Number and Household Number. For the individual level, the key identifiers are PSUSEG and PID (personal identifier OR line number of person ).

A detailed description of the data files and their contents is provided below: (Note that with the exception of key variables, all the variables are named using HH as prefix plus the question number as appears in the questionnaire).

Household level data file
1. HHquest.Sav : This data file contains 6156 cases representing the households that completed the interview. It includes identification questions, the date of interview (in CMC format**), and Questions HH2 through HH405 (with the exception of the individual level questions which are stored in separate data files (or tables). These questions are:
• HH2 through HH15 in HHroster.sav
• HH19 through HH21 in HHmigrant.Sav
• HH23 and HH24 in HHhandicap.Sav
• HH26 and HH27 in HHillness.Sav
• HH214 in HHcontribute.Sav

The data contained in this file provide information about the living conditions, expenditures, basic needs and income, and a description of the household conditions.

** The CMC format : The Century Month Code (CMC) is the number of the months since the start of the century . For example, Jan. 1900 is CMC 1, Jan.1901 is CMC 13, Jan.1960 is CMC 721, and Jan. 1995 is 1141. The CMC for a date is calculated from month and year variables as follows:
CMC = (YY*12)+MM
For month MM in year 19YY

Individual level data file
2. HHroster.Sav : This data file includes 34,567 cases representing the household de facto population. The Questions HH2 to HH15 provide basic information about the household members (sex, age, marital status, relation to head, education, and work status). Questions HH16 and HH17 were used as filter questions.
Note: Questions on education and work status were tailored to individuals age 6 and over, questions on marital status were addressed to individuals age 15 and over, question on eligibility for the individual interview is restricted to individuals age 18+, and question on eligibility for the wife/husband questionnaire is restricted to women age 18-45 and husbands age 18+.

3. HHmigrant.Sav: It includes 811 cases. Questions HH19 through HH21 contained in this file provide information about the household members, who were living away at the time of the interview (for a period exceeding two weeks), because of working in other parts of Egypt or abroad, at school or college. (Note: that those members are not included in the HHroster file)

4. HHhandicap.Sav: This data file contains 675 cases representing the (partially or totally) handicapped members of the household. It contains questions HH23 through HH24. (Note: the members present in this file are included in the HHroster file).

5. HHillness.Sav: This file includes 1751 cases indicating the members of the household who suffer from any illness or health problem (aside from temporary cold and flue) .

6. HHcontribute.Sav: This file contains 706 cases representing the contributions to the household expenditures from relatives/ acquaintances that are not part of the household (not present in the HHroster data file).

Individual Questionnaire

This questionnaire has been administrated to 8567 cases. The individuals were selected as described in the following steps:

1) In each Household, eligible individuals are first identified (Age is 18+).
2) Only one individual is RANDOMLY selected from the list of eligible individual resulting in 6039 cases.
3) If the selected individual is an ever-married woman (age 18 to 45), then her husband will  automatically be interviewed. Like wise, if a husband is randomly selected, then his wife will also be interviewed provided that she is 18 to 45 years old. This step has yielded 2528 cases. These remaining cases can be made available on special request. To use them requires special handling of the data.

The Individual questionnaire contains 8 major sections as briefly described below:

• Identification Section:
It includes the basic information used to compute the key in order to uniquely identify each individual questionnaire. It also includes information on whether the respondent is randomly selected, and the sex and marital status of the respondent.

• Section 1 : Basic Information Section
It includes basic information about the respondent’s place of birth, spatial movements, duration of stay in the current place of residence. In addition to information on date of birth, current age, and possession of an identity card.

• Section 2 : Respondent’s Family
It contains information about the respondent’s mother, father, stepfather, stepmother and the guardian. The questions address the educational level, occupation, wealth, and enterprises. In addition to some questions about the number of surviving and dead siblings and their education. This section ends with questions that describe the place where the respondent lived before age 16 (building materials, water, toilets, electricity and means of transportation).

• Section 3 : Education
This section provides information on the respondent’s school attendance, level of education, specialization (for university level), reasons for not attending (school), attendance of illiteracy classes, and general information about the illiteracy classes (such as cost, sources of information about the classes, provider of illiteracy education, … etc). It also includes questions on the respondent’s experience with training, scholarships, workshops, educational aspiration and reasons for not attaining the aspired level of education.

• Section 4 : Health Status
The questions in this section provide general information of the individual’s health condition. It includes questions related to the individual’s own perception about his/her health, health complaints, difficulties in carrying out normal activities and the need for special help indicating the person who provides the help. In addition to questions on hospitalization (in the past twelve months), satisfaction with hospitalization, type of place where the respondent received hospitalization, the medication and the degree of satisfaction with medication, reasons for not taking medication, and cost of hospitalization and medication. Also included in this section, questions that are related to the health insurance, its coverage, its type, its provider, the family members it covers, and the type of payment and the percentage of medication it covers.

• Sections 5 and 6: Occupation and Employment
This section starts with a question about the respondent’s main occupation. It then addresses the respondent’s involvement in agriculture, type and amount of payment, ownership/rent of agricultural land, ownership of cattle/sheep/poultry, annual income from agriculture and related activities, duration of involvement in agriculture and reasons for leaving agriculture. It also includes questions about the experience with professional practices (engineering, law, medicine, accounting, …etc) and non-agricultural projects (production, services and marketing activities). These questions include information about the participation of family members in the practice/activity, size (number of employees, capital, source of funding .etc), duration, termination of practice and its reasons. It also includes detailed information on the respondent’s main occupation (previous and current job). These were addressed through questions on the employer, field of economic activity, nature of the job duties, monthly salary and other allowances and fringe benefits, number of working years, job satisfaction and additional jobs. Several questions about migration for work (inside Egypt or abroad) are also included. The questions include duration of migration, place of last migration, nature of the job before and after migration, field of economic activity, employment status, reasons for leaving the job in the place of migration, skills and experience gained, and use of money from working abroad.

• Section 7 : Individual Income, Assets, Transfers and Assistance:
This section deals with the governmental retirement program, the different insurance programs as well as the social care and savings for employees programs. Questions in this respect investigate the coverage, respondent’s application to the program, the benefits received from each program. Other questions address the different kind of difficulties encountered in the process of applying for these program. This section also included questions on financial assistantship, as well as income from remittances, loans, credits, bonds, banks savings. Etc. It also contains questions on income sufficiency, affordability of basic needs and coping strategies. The last part deals with the monthly and annual income level.

• Section 8 : Attitudes, Leadership and Participation
This section includes one question with several aspects. It is designed to elicit the respondent’s own perception about the extent of help in hard times from family/relatives, neighbors/friends, government, NGOs and community associations. It also addresses the respondent’s own perception of poverty alleviation.


The data gathered through the Individual questionnaire is allocated into 1 data file (created and saved in SPSS v6.00 for Windows format). The key identifiers are PSUSEG and PID (personal identifier OR line number of person in Household Roster).

A description of the data files and its contents is provided below: (Note that with the exception of key variables, all the variables are named using “I” as a prefix plus the question number as appears in the questionnaire).

INDRANquest.Sav: This data file contains 6039 cases representing the randomly selected individuals that completed the interview. It includes identification questions, the date of interview, and Questions I101 through I801.

The data contained in this file provide information about the respondent’s family, his/her education , health status, occupation and employment, migration for work, individual income, as well as information about the respondent’s attitude towards poverty alleviation.

Any analysis to be carried out on the individual file should be weighted. The WEIGHT has been computed in a variable as described in the following steps :
1) Use the file HHroster.Sav in order to compute the number of eligible individuals (age 18+) for each household
2) Add the created variable to the individual file.
3) Compute the average number of eligible individuals.
4) Compute the weight as the Number of Eligible Individuals in the household divided by the Average Number of Eligible Individuals (computed in 3 above).
5) Weigh the individual file by the newly created variable for the weight (computed in 4 above).
The name of the weight variable is WEIGHT . It must always be used.
 

Appendix A

Units of Area of questions: hh325A, I220, I222, I237, I239, I254, I256, I506, I507, I508
Each of these questions has three variables : 1) Feddan, 2) Kirates, and 3) Sahm. For example I220_F Fadden
I220_K Kirat
I220_S Sahm
1 Feddan = 4200.8335 Sq. Meter = 24 Kirat
1 Kirat = 175.0347 Sq. Meter = 24 Sahm
1 Sahm = 7.2931 Sq. Meter

Codes of Variable hh2
                                                  A     B
The code consists of three digits ( - - ) ( - )
The rightmost digit depends on marital status, spouse is a member of the same household or not for those ever married and parents are members of the same household or not if never married.
The leftmost two digits identify basic family units within the same household. All members of the same basic family unit have the same code (A) which starts always by 10 for the basic family unit of the head of the household and varies otherwise depending on the exact relationships.
999 missing relationship

Code of (B)
1 first couple in the household
2 second couple in the household
3 third couple in the household
4 fourth couple in the household
5 fifth couple in the household
0 spouse is not a member of the same household if ever married
6 both parents are not members of the same household if never married
7 never married and both parents are member of the same household
8 never married, residing with father only
9 never married, residing with mother only
 
Code of (A)
10 head of household, spouse of the head of household and his spouse and never married children
11 first ever married son of head of household and his spouse and never married children
12 second ever married son of head of household and his spouse and never married children
13 third ever married son of head of household and his spouse and never married children
14 forth ever married son of head of household and his spouse and never married children
15 fifth ever married son of head of household and his spouse and never married children
……..
21 first ever married daughter of head of household and her spouse and never married children
22 second ever married daughter of head of household and her spouse and never married children
…….
30 parents and never married siblings of the head of household
31 grand parents and never married aunts and uncles of the head of household
32 great grand father of the head of household
…….
40 parents and never married siblings of the spouse of the head of household
41 grand parents and never married aunts and uncles of the spouse of the head of household
42 great grand father of the spouse of the head of household
…….
51 first ever married sibling of the head of household and his/her spouse and never married children
52 second ever married sibling of the head of household and his/her spouse and never married children
53 third ever married sibling of the head of household and his/her spouse and never married children
54 fourth ever married sibling of the head of household and his/her spouse and never married children
…….
61 first ever married sibling of the spouse of the head of household and his/her spouse and never married children
62 second ever married sibling of the spouse of the head of household and his/her spouse and never married children
63 third ever married sibling of the spouse of the head of household and his/her spouse and never married children
71 ever married cousin of the head of household and his/her spouse and never married children
81 ever married cousin of the spouse of the head of household and his/her spouse and never married children
91-97 others

All images are copyrighted to Nassif Azmy
@ Social Research Center
Suggestions and Comments to: srchild@aucegypt.edu