Interviewer instructions
Age must be recorded in years for persons aged five (5) years or more, and in years and months for those under 5 (question 6). The age is that on the day of the interview. If, for example, the respondent's eighteenth birthday falls the day after the interview, you must record 17 as the respondent's current age.
If the respondent does not know his/her age, you must make an estimate by reference to the events that have taken place in his life or that of the community (village, town, district, region) or the world, such as the independence of Kenya or the World Wars. Intensive probing might be required to obtain the complete month and year of birth. Often families will refer to events such as:
· Community events/weather conditions
· Religious occasions/holidays
· Public holidays e.g. Jamhuri Day, Christmas, Easter, New Years
· Regional disasters
· Birth intervals
· World events e.g. World War I,II
· National independence in 1963.
These additional questions can be used to estimate the age of household members:
· Ask when the respondent was married and how long after marriage of the child was born and then calculate the child's age.
· Compare the age of the household's child with that of a neighbor's child, an age-mate, or playmate.
· Establish the dates of specific events in a given location where the interview takes place and ask how old the member was when the events occurred.
