Variable wm8m : Month of birth of woman

Type: Continuous Format: numeric Width: 2 Decimal(s): 0 Range: 1-99

Valid case(s): 25026 Invalid: 537 Minimum: 1 Maximum: 98

File: wm

Women aged 15-49

The eligible woman selected for interview

Categories

Repeat greeting if not already read to this woman:
We are from (COUNTRY-SPECIFIC AFFILIATION). We are working on a project concerned with family health and education. I would like to talk to you about this. The interview will take about (NUMBER) minutes. All the information we obtain will remain strictly confidential and your answers will never be identified. Also, you are not obliged to answer any question you don't want to, and you may withdraw from the interview at any time. May I start now?

If permission is given, begin the interview. If the woman does not agree to continue, thank her, complete WM7, and go to the next interview. Discuss this result with your supervisor for a future revisit.

In what month and year were you born?

Age (WM8 or WM9) is one of the most important questions in the interview, since almost all analysis of the data depends on the respondent's age. This question must be asked independently of the information on the Household Questionnaire. Even if you already asked the respondent her age when you were completing the Household Questionnaire, you must ask again for her date of birth and age on the Questionnaire for Individual Women.

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If the respondent knows her date of birth, write it in the appropriate spaces for 'Month' and 'Year'. You will need to convert the month into numbers. For this, January is '01', February is '02', March is '03', etc. If the month or day contains only one digit, use a leading zero to fill in the first space. For example, the month of March is coded as '03'. If she does not know her month of birth, circle '98' for 'DK month' and ask her for the year of her birth. If she knows the year, write it in the spaces for 'Year'. Try under all circumstances to obtain at least the year of birth. If the respondent is unable to provide this information, ask whether she has any documentation such as an identification card, horoscope, or a birth or baptismal certificate that might give her date of birth. If such documentation is available, ask the woman if the information on the document(s) is correct. Only when it is absolutely impossible to even estimate the year of birth should you circle '9998' for 'DK year'.