Description

DEPHURTSELF2WK (MTH16) reports how often the woman thought she would be better off dead or thought about hurting herself in the past two weeks. Responses range from 0 for “Never,” to 1 for “Rarely,” to 2 for "Often,” to 3 for “Always.”

DEPHURTSELF2WK (MTH16) is one in a series of 9 variables used to measure whether the person was depressed. According to The DHS Program:

Variables MTH8 to MTH16 are used to calculate the PQH score which is essentially an index of depression. Depression is a mental health disorder that may affect daily activities through low moods, low levels of motivation, feelings of insecurity and worthlessness, and inability to do basic things that impact their relationships, work, and life.

The summary variable with the PQH score, DEPRESSIONSCORE (MTH22), has values ranging from 0 (responses of “never” for all nine constituent variables) to 27 (responses of “always” for all nine constituent variables). Response of “refuse to answer” (code 7) and “don’t know” (code 8) are excluded from the calculation.

Comparability

Apart from universe differences, DEPHURTSELF2WK (MTH16) has no comparability problems.

Comparability - Standard DHS

DEPHURTSELF2WK (MTH16) is a standard variable that is part of the optional Mental Health module introduced in DHS Phase 8.

Universe