Codes

This variable is not available for any of the currently selected samples.

Description

MAFEDGRAIN24H (V414E) indicates whether the child's mother gave her youngest surviving child bread, rice, noodles, porridge, or other foods made from grain during the previous day, either at night or during the daytime. This variable describes a characteristic of the mother rather than the child.

While the question refers to foods given to the youngest child, values assigned in the data follow two patterns in the child datasets. In earlier phases, the information is found for only the youngest child of each woman for which there is valid information about the child's diet. A typical universe statement reflecting this situation reads, "Last-born surviving child under age 5, born to women age 15-49". Alternatively in later phases, all young children of the mother are coded the same way with the information referring to a single, last-born or youngest child. A typical universe statement for this type of data structure reads, "Children born in the 5 years before the survey to women age 15-49 whose last born child under age 3 is still alive" where the information about that last-born surviving child is the information duplicated to all of the woman's children and therefore does not necessarily indicate whether a particular child ate bread, rice, noodles, porridge, or other foods made from grain during the previous day. See Comparability.

IPUMS-DHS users should instead employ the variable FEDGRAIN24H (M37Q) to determine whether the child ate bread, rice, noodles, porridge, or other foods made from grain during the previous day.

The related variable MAFEDGRAIN24HX (V469Q) reports the number of times the child's mother gave her youngest surviving child bread, rice, noodles, porridge, or other foods made from grain during the previous 24 hours. MAFEDGRAINWKD (V470Q) reports the number of days the child's mother gave her youngest surviving child bread, rice, noodles, porridge, or other foods made from grain during the past week.

Comparability — Index

Comparability

In addition to universe differences described below, MAFEDGRAIN24H (V414E) has significant variation in question wording, such as which grains are included in the questionnaires, and recoding.

Researchers should remember that, although all phases of the standard DHS questionnaire ask about foods given to a specific child during the previous day, the data do not always reflect this. In MAFEDGRAIN24H, the responses are treated as a characteristic of the mother. In earlier phases, typically the information is only applied to the last-born, surviving child to which the mother fed the food. For most samples in later phases, all reported young children of the mother are coded the same way. If the mother reported she gave her youngest surviving child bread, rice, noodles, porridge, or other foods made from grain in the previous day, all of her young children in the data are coded as "yes," including any children who have died or who live elsewhere.

FEDGRAIN24H (M37Q) reports the results to the same question in the questionnaire, but it treats the responses as a characteristic of the child, indicating whether the child ate bread, rice, noodles, porridge, or other foods made from grain during the previous day.

Comparability - Standard DHS

MAFEDGRAIN24H (V414E) is included in the standard DHS questionnaire across phases. All phases represent foods the woman fed her last-born, surviving child, but there are differences in the age of that child, if that child is breastfeeding, or if the child is living with her.

In Phases I and II of the standard questionnaire, if the respondent's last-born child either under the age of 3 or 5 years is alive and still breastfeeding, the respondent is asked which foods she fed that last-born child in the past day.

In Phase III, the standard questionnaire asks about the foods given to each surviving child born in the three to five years before the survey. In some samples in Phase III and IV, information unique for each child may be found on FEDGRAIN24H, while information for only the youngest child is found in this variable.

In Phases IV and V, the standard questionnaire asks about the youngest surviving child born in the three years before the survey who is living with the mother. Phase IV asks about the number of times the child was given any food made from grain [e.g., millet, sorghum, maize, rice, wheat, or other local grains] in the previous 24 hours ((MAFEDGRAIN24HX (V469Q)), and Phase V asks whether the child was given bread, rice, noodles, or other foods made from grain.

In Phases VI and VII, the standard questionnaires ask about the youngest surviving child born in the two years before the survey who is living with the mother.

Universe