Demographic and Health Survey 1996

As in the 1991-92 TDHS, the need to find competent interviewers was the guiding factor in recruiting interviewers. The Ministry of Health was again requested to secure the services of trained nurses to be interviewers in the 1996 TDHS. For Zanzibar, a similar request was made to the Zanzibar Ministry of Health to provide nurses for the interview work.

The 1996 TDHS field staff consisted of eight teams, each composed of six female interviewers, one male interviewer, a field editor, a supervisor, and a driver. Sixty female nurses and 12 male nurses were recruited and 8 statisticians were selected as supervisors. After three weeks of intensive training, 50 female and 8 male interviewers were selected for the fieldwork. During training, a series of assessment tests were given to the class. These tests were graded and the results were used to select interviewers. Those who showed extra understanding of the questionnaires and were also able to detect errors in completed questionnaires were later chosen to be field editors.

The training of field staff for the main survey was conducted over a three-week period in early July 1996, at the Vocational Training Institute (VETA) in Iringa. Permanent staff from the Bureau of Statistics and staff from Macro International conducted the training with the support of guest lecturers from the UMATI, MCH personnel from the lringa regional hospital, and staff from the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre. Trial interviews were conducted in nearby villages and some parts of the city of Ifinga. Computer operators participated in the training to acquaint themselves with the questionnaires. The training course consisted of instructions in interviewing techniques, field procedures, a detailed review of items on the questionnaires, training and practice in weighing and measuring children, mock interviews between participants in the classroom, and practice interviews with real respondents in areas in and around Iringa.

Supervisors and editors were trained exclusively for three days to discuss their duties and responsibilities. Emphasis was given to the importance of ensuring data quality. The supervisor was required to act as the leader of the field team and be responsible for the well-being and safety of team members, completion of the assigned workload, and maintenance of data quality. The duties and responsibilities of the editor were to monitor interviewer performance and take anthropometric measurements of children and women. Close supervision of the interviewers and editing of completed questionnaires were emphasized to ensure that data collection was accurate and complete.

The fieldwork for the main survey began in late July 1996 and lasted until November 1996. Women and men for the individual interviews were identified during the household interview. It was stressed that the household interview had to be done by an interviewer other than the one who would conduct the individual interview. This was intended to reduce the error due to the age shifting particularly among women or men at the youngest or oldest age groups. Team supervisors located the households and assigned them to the interviewers. Completed household and individual questionnaires were handed over to the field editors who checked them to ensure that all relevant questions were properly recorded, that the skip pattern instructions were followed, and that responses were internally consistent. Each team was instructed to complete the editing work and resolve all errors found in the questionnaires before the team left the cluster. Supervisors were required to ensure that all the selected households and eligible women and men in a cluster were interviewed, and that assignment sheets for the interviewers and supervisors were filled out completely and correctly. The questionnaires and the control sheets were dispatched to the head office in Dares Salaam for data processing.