Abstract

The 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey is the fourth nationally representative comprehensive survey conducted as part of the worldwide Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) project in the country. The survey was implemented by New ERA under the aegis of the Population Division, Ministry of Health and Population. Technical support for this survey was provided by ICF International with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its mission in Nepal.

The primary objective of the 2011 NDHS is to provide up-to-date and reliable data on different issues related to population and health, which provides guidance in planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating health programs in Nepal. The long term objective of the survey is to strengthen the technical capacity of the local institutions to plan, conduct, process and analyze data from complex national population and health surveys. The survey includes topics on fertility levels and determinants, family planning, fertility preferences, childhood mortality, children and women’s nutritional status, the utilization of maternal and child health services, knowledge of HIV/AIDS and STIs, women’s empowerment and for the first time, information on women facing different types of domestic violence. The survey also reports on the anemia status of women age 15-49 and children age 6-59 months.

In addition to providing national estimates, the survey report also provides disaggregated data at the level of various domains such as ecological region, development regions and for urban and rural areas. This being the fourth survey of its kind, there is considerable trend information on reproductive and health care over the past 15 years. Moreover, the 2011 NDHS is comparable to similar surveys conducted in other countries and therefore, affords an international comparison. The 2011 NDHS also adds to the vast and growing international database on demographic and health-related variables.

The 2011 NDHS collected demographic and health information from a nationally representative sample of 10,826 households, which yielded completed interviews with 12,674 women age 15-49 in all selected households and with 4, 121 men age 15-49 in every second household.

This survey is the concerted effort of various individuals and institutions.

Geographic coverage

The primary focus of the 2011 NDHS was to provide estimates of key population and health indicators, including fertility and mortality rates, for the country as a whole and for urban and rural areas separately. In addition, the sample was designed to provide estimates of most key variables for the 13 eco-development regions.

Analysis unit

Household, adult woman, adult man

Kind of data

Sample survey data

Sampling procedure

The primary focus of the 2011 NDHS was to provide estimates of key population and health indicators, including fertility and mortality rates, for the country as a whole and for urban and rural areas separately. In addition, the sample was designed to provide estimates of most key variables for the 13 eco-development regions.

Sampling Frame

Nepal is divided into 75 districts, which are further divided into smaller VDCs and municipalities. The VDCs and municipalities, in turn, are further divided into wards. The larger wards in the urban areas are divided into subwards. An enumeration area (EA) is defined as a ward in rural areas and a subward in urban areas. Each EA is classified as urban or rural. As the upcoming population census was scheduled for June 2011, the 2011 NDHS used the list of EAs with population and household information developed by the Central Bureau of Statistics for the 2001 Population Census. The long gap between the 2001 census and the fielding of the 2011 NDHS necessitated an updating of the 2001 sampling frame to take into account not only population growth but also mass internal and external migration due to the 10-year political conflict in the country. To obtain an updated list, a partial updating of the 2001 census frame was carried out by conducting a quick count of dwelling units in EAs five times more than the sample required for each of the 13 domains. The results of the quick count survey served as the actual frame for the 2011 NDHS sample design.

Domains

The country is broadly divided into three horizontal ecological zones, namely mountain, hill, and terai. Vertically, the country is divided into five development regions. The cross section of these zones and regions results in 15 eco-development regions, which are referred to in the 2011 NDHS as subregions or domains. Due to the small population size in the mountain regions, the Western, Mid-western, and Far-western mountain regions are combined into one domain, yielding a total of 13 domains. In order to provide an adequate sample to calculate most of the key indicators at an acceptable level of precision, each domain had a minimum of about 600 households.

Stratification was achieved by separating each of the 13 domains into urban and rural areas. The 2011 NDHS used the same urban-rural stratification as in the 2001 census frame. In total, 25 sampling strata were created. There are no urban areas in the Western, Mid-western, and Far-western mountain regions. The numbers of wards and subwards in each of the 13 domains are not allocated proportional to their population due to the need to provide estimates with acceptable levels of statistical precision for each domain and for urban and rural domains of the country as a whole. The vast majority of the population in Nepal resides in the rural areas. In order to provide national urban estimates, urban areas of the country were oversampled.

Sample Selection

Samples were selected independently in each stratum through a two-stage selection process. In the first stage, EAs were selected using a probability-proportional-to-size strategy. In order to achieve the target sample size in each domain, the ratio of urban EAs to rural EAs in each domain was roughly 1 to 2, resulting in 95 urban and 194 rural EAs (a total of 289 EAs).

Complete household listing and mapping was carried out in all selected EAs (clusters). In the second stage, 35 households in each urban EA and 40 households in each rural EA were randomly selected. Due to the nonproportional allocation of the sample to the different domains and to oversampling of urban areas in each domain, sampling weights are required for any analysis using the 2011 NDHS data to ensure the actual representativeness of the sample at the national level as well as at the domain levels. Since the 2011 NDHS sample is a two-stage stratified cluster sample, sampling weights were calculated based on sampling probabilities separately for each sampling stage, taking into account nonproportionality in the allocation process for domains and urban-rural strata.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face

Research instrument

Three questionnaires were administered in the 2011 NDHS: the Household Questionnaire, the Woman’s Questionnaire, and the Man’s Questionnaire. These questionnaires were adapted from the standard DHS6 core questionnaires to reflect the population and health issues relevant to Nepal at a series of meetings with various stakeholders from government ministries and agencies, nongovernmental organizations, EDPs, and international donors. The final draft of each questionnaire was discussed at a questionnaire design workshop organized by the MOHP, Population Division on 22 April 2010 in Kathmandu. These questionnaires were then translated from English into the three main local languages—Nepali, Maithali, and Bhojpuri—and back translated into English. Questionnaires were finalized after the pretest, which was held from 30 September to 4 November 2010, with a one-week break in October for the Dasain holiday.

The Household Questionnaire was used to list all of the usual members and visitors in the selected households. Some basic information was collected on the characteristics of each person listed, including age, sex, education, and relationship to the head of the household. For children under age 18, the survival status of the parents was determined. The Household Questionnaire was used to identify women and men who were eligible for the individual interview and women who were eligible for the interview focusing on domestic violence. The Household Questionnaire also collected information on characteristics of the household’s dwelling unit, such as source of water, type of toilet facilities, materials used for the floor of the house, ownership of various durable goods, ownership of mosquito nets, and household food security. The results of salt testing for iodine content, height and weight measurements, and anemia testing were also recorded in the Household Questionnaire.

The Woman’s Questionnaire was used to collect information from women age 15-49. Women were asked questions on the following topics: - background characteristics (education, residential history, media exposure, etc.) - pregnancy history and childhood mortality - knowledge and use of family planning methods - fertility preferences - antenatal, delivery, and postnatal care - breastfeeding and infant feeding practices - vaccinations and childhood illnesses - marriage and sexual activity - work characteristics and husband’s background characteristics - awareness and behavior regarding AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections - domestic violence

The Man’s Questionnaire was administered to all men age 15-49 living in every second household in the 2011 NDHS. The Man’s Questionnaire collected much of the same information as the Woman’s Questionnaire but was shorter