Household Health Surveys in Developing Countries: Challenges for Quantitative Analysis (The Case of Demographic and Health Surveys)

Martin del Burgo ML and Amaral

Abstract

Surveys are currently used in different fields and household health surveys are especially useful in developing countries due to the absence or scarcity of registration systems. This article summarizes the main limitations and challenges of the methodology of household surveys, focusing the attention in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). From 80´s until today health questionnaires have been improved with additional supply and demand side questions including specific socioeconomic variables. However, there is still room for improvement in crucial issues like the dynamic aspects of the sample.