PREPARATIONS are already underway for Zimbabwe to conduct its eighth Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), a nationally representative household survey which provides data for a wide range of monitoring and impact evaluation indicators in the areas of population, health, and nutrition.
By Kudakwashe Pembere
The most recent DHS for Zimbabwe was done in 2015 and it had a representative sample of 11,196 households was selected.
This year’s sample size according to Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) public relations officer, Mr Roland Chiringa has increased to 11,200 households (28 HH per cluster). He also said this DHS will use the 2022 census sampling frame.
In terms of sample size and organization of the survey, a total 10 domains will be sampled. 400 Clusters will sampled using the 2022 census sampling frame,” he said.
With the first DHS conducted in 1988, this year’s survey will be looking into several modules such as household characteristics, Mosquito nets, Characteristics of respondent, Reproduction, Contraception, Pregnancy and postnatal care, Child immunizations, Child health and nutrition, Marriage and sexual activity, Fertility preferences, Husband’s characteristics and women’s occupation, Employment and gender, HIV/AIDS, and Other health aspects.
The eighth DHS comes in to answer some of the questions the nation had regarding several issues and will give a clearer picture of what is obtaining insofar as the standard modules are concerned.
“It also comes with new changes in the above mentioned modules such as more questions. It also follows up with questions on latest medical products such as the Sayana Press used in family planning,” Mr Chiringa said.
With stigma being a huge impediment in the fight against HIV, the survey also looks into the experiences of stigma for people living with HIV.
It will also look into the coverage of nutrition interventions in infants, children, lactating and pregnant women.
Content of postnatal care for women among other issues will be looked into during this survey.
The issue of unhealthy foods, sweetened beverages and other issues will also be discussed. Also to be discussed are the issues of menstrual hygiene at a time when accessing affordable menstrual products is hard for not only those in the rural areas but also those in urban setting.
Another major highlight in this survey is alcohol use which has become a national epidemic with youths being the most affected through abuse of substances like crystal meth, and mbanje.
Representatives from ZIMSTAT, ICF Macro, Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC), University of Zimbabwe (UZ), Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MWACSMED),Ministry of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry (MECTHI), National Aids Council (NAC), Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC), World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA), The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), United States Agency for International Development(USAID), United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and the Ministry of National Housing attended the 2023 ZDHS Questionnaire Design Workshop held recently.
Between the 2015 DHS to date, efforts have been made to cover the time-gap through surveys such as the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS 2019) which had similar indicators such as nutrition, and maternal health to mention but these.