Description

For women who had symptoms of a sexually transmitted infection in the past 12 months, STIADPUBFW indicates whether, in response to an open-ended question, they reported seeking advice or treatment from a public fieldworker for this problem.

Some samples in the "STIAD" series include categories that can be consolidated into a single response. IPUMS-DHS uses supplemental programming to combine these responses in a standard variable while preserving the separate responses in country-specific variables.

IPUMS-DHS users should be careful to distinguish this variable from STIADPRIVFW (private fieldworker).

Comparability — Index

Comparability

Along with universe differences, STIADPUBFW varies slightly in question wording. Most commonly, this response category is organized under a "Public Sector" header and is worded as "fieldworker" or "health worker." However, some countries diverge from this standard convention, and, in some cases, multiple categories were consolidated to form a single, more comprehensive response. STIADPUBFW is ultimately concerned with whether the woman mentioned any public field worker as a source of treatment, rather than the specific type of worker. Countries of particular interest are noted below.

Additionally, samples vary in how they asked about sexually transmitted infections. For example, samples in Phase V forward surveys generally asked whether the woman had any STI, a genital sore/ulcer, and a genital discharge. In Phase III, the surveys mentioned additional infections. Due to this variation, researchers are encouraged to review the Survey Text tab for samples of interest.

Comparability - Standard DHS

STIADPUBFW first appears in Phase III of the Standard DHS questionnaire. Women with a sexually transmitted infection in the last 12 months are asked whether they sought treatment and, if so, are asked an open-ended question about where treatment was sought (e.g., "Where did you seek advice or treatment? Anywhere else?"). The base universe in this phase was women who had a sexually transmitted infection for which they sought treatment in the 12 months prior to the interview.

In Phase IV, women are asked closed-ended questions about whether they sought treatment at specific sources (e.g., "The last time you had (INFECTION), did you seek advice from a health worker in a clinic or hospital?"). Given the conceptual differences between phases, samples from Phase IV are excluded from STIADPUBFW.

In Phase V, STIADPUBFW follows the same format as in Phase III. However, the base universe in these phases was women who had a sexually transmitted infection in the 12 months prior to the interview, thus including women who indicated that they did not seek treatment. To increase comparability across phases, researchers may wish to exclude women who did not seek treatment, using the STIADVICE variable (with women who did not seek advice/treatment coded "0").

Universe