We are excited to continue this series to keep you up-to-date on nutrition in The DHS Program. The nutrition portfolio aligns with the overall goals of the Program to:
Ensure Quality Data
Build Capacity
Increase Data Use
Explore Innovations
Ensure Quality Data
Ideas for nutrition data quality in The DHS Program
The DHS Program identified actions to enhance nutrition data quality. Fifty-four interviews and two focus groups were conducted to seek a range of perspectives from within The DHS Program and external actors. What emerged was a total of 32 recommendations for anthropometry, hemoglobin, and infant and young child feeding. Check out the report for more details.
Capacity Strengthening
Hot off the press: DHS Fellows article
The 2018 Myanmar DHS Fellows recently published a manuscript on infant and young child nutrition in Myanmar in PLOS One. This is especially exciting since the 2015-16 Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) was the first DHS survey in the country, and this was the first nutrition fellow group. Kudos to the team!
Increase Data Use
Showcasing nutrition in Service Provision Assessment (SPA)
Service Provision Assessment (SPA) are nationally representative health facility assessments that provide a comprehensive overview of a country’s health service delivery. This report describes nutrition data in the context of antenatal and curative child care services in 10 countries.
Explore Innovations
Assessing micronutrient biomarkers in population-based surveys
The U.S. Government Micronutrient Delivery Platforms working group brought together survey experts to share lessons on collecting micronutrient data in population-based surveys. Participants explored the suitability of incorporating micronutrient biomarkers into large-scale household surveys, such as DHS and MICS surveys.
Measuring nutrition in population-based household and facility surveys
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a meeting of nutrition experts. Meeting participants worked in groups to:
Identify priority nutrition coverage data gaps that could be filled through household and facility surveys
Develop and prioritize recommendations for improving nutrition coverage questions across household and facility surveys
Survey-based approaches to measure coverage of nutrition counselling interventions
Alive & Thrive (A&T), Data for Decisions to Expand Nutrition Transformation (DataDENT), and the WHO-UNICEF Technical Expert Advisory Group on Nutrition Monitoring (TEAM) convened a meeting of infant feeding experts to discuss how to measure nutrition counselling and support interventions.
The DHS Program seeks input on the collection of nutrition data in DHS-8
A review portal is now open for the review of the core questionnaires, optional modules, and biomarkers for DHS-8. Provide your feedback on nutrition here.
Ensure Quality Data
Capacity Strengthening
Increase Data Use
Explore Innovations
