Sampling Procedure
The 2010 Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey (NMIS) called for a nationally representative sample of about 6,000 households. The survey is designed to provide information on key malaria-related indicators including mosquito net ownership and use, coverage of preventive treatment for pregnant women, treatment of childhood fever, and the prevalence of anaemia and malaria among children age 6-59 months. The sample for the 2010 NMIS was designed to provide most of these indicators for the country as a whole, for urban and rural areas separately, and for each of the six zones formed by grouping the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The zones are as follows:
1. North Central: Benue, FCT-Abuja, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, and Plateau
2. North East: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe
3. North West: Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara
4. South East: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo
5. South South: Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers
6. South West: Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo
SAMPLING FRAME
The sampling frame used for the 2010 NMIS was the Population and Housing Census of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which was conducted in 2006 by the National Population Commission (NPC). Administratively, Nigeria is divided into states. Each state is subdivided into local government areas (LGAs), and each LGA is divided into localities. In addition to these administrative units, during the 2006 Population Census, each locality was subdivided into convenient areas called census enumeration areas (EAs). The primary sampling unit (PSU), referred to as a cluster for the 2010 NMIS, is defined on the basis of EAs from the 2006 EA census frame.
Although the 2006 Population Census did not provide the number of households and population for each EA, population estimates were published for more than 800 LGA units. A combination of information from cartographic material demarcating each EA and the LGA population estimates from the census were used to identify the list of EAs, estimate the number of households, and distinguish EAs as urban or rual for the survey sample frame.
SAMPLE ALLOCATION
The 2010 NMIS sample was selected using a stratified, two-stage cluster design consisting of 240 clusters, 83 in the urban areas and 157 in the rural areas. (The final sample included 239 clusters because access to one cluster was prevented by inter-communal disturbances.) A sample of 6,240 households was selected for the survey, with a minimum target of 920 completed individual women's interviews per zone. Within each zone, the number of households was distributed proportionately among urban and rural areas. A fixed 'take' of 26 households per cluster was adopted for both urban and rural clusters.
SAMPLING PROCEDURE AND UPDATING OF THE SAMPLING FRAME
The 2010 NMIS sample is a stratified sample selected in two stages. The primary sampling units (PSUs) are the enumeration areas (EAs) from the 2006 census, and the secondary sampling units (SSUs) are the households. In the first stage of selection, the 240 EAs were selected with a probability proportional to the size of the EA, where size is the number of approximate households calculated within the sampling frame.
A complete listing of households and a mapping exercise for each cluster was carried out from August through September 2010. The lists of households resulting from this exercise served as the sampling frame for the selection of households in the second stage. In addition to listing the households, the NPC listing enumerators used global positioning system (GPS) receivers to record the coordinates of the 2010 NMIS sample clusters.
In the second stage of the selection process, 26 households were selected in each cluster by equal probability systematic sampling. All women age 15-49 who were either permanent residents of the households in the 2010 NMIS sample or visitors present in the households on the night before the survey were eligible to be interviewed. In addition, all children age 6-59 months were eligible to be tested for malaria and anaemia.
The sampling procedures are fully described in Appendix A of "Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey 2010 - Final Report" pp.69-71.