Definition
For adult male household members, HWMANEMIALVL (HB57) reports the level of anemia, from severely anemic to not anemic, based on hemoglobin levels in blood drawn by DHS personnel.
According to the DHS Recode Manuals:
[Hemoglobin] Levels below 7.0 g/dl are considered as severe anemia, levels between 7.1g/dl and 9.9g/dl are considered as moderate anemia and cases between 10.0 g/dl and 10.9 g/dl are considered as mild anemia for pregnant women and between 10.0 g/dl and 11.9 g/dl for all other adult women.
Some samples may have used the cut-offs for women listed above to determine the anemia level for male household members, despite normal levels of hemoglobin differing between men and women. That is, according to the World Health Organization, for adult men, hemoglobin levels below 8.0 g/dl are considered as severe anemia, levels between 8.1g/dl and 10.9g/dl are considered as moderate anemia, levels between 11.0 g/dl and 12.9 g/dl are considered as mild anemia, and levels 13.0 g/dl and above are considered to be non-anemic.
Using the cut-offs for women listed above to determine the anemia level for male household members could cause inaccuracies in HWMANEMIALVL (e.g., a man with a hemoglobin level of 12.0 g/dl in reality would be considered to have mild anemia, but would be coded as "not anemic" in HWMANEMIALVL). As a result, IPUMS-DHS users may wish to cross-tab HWMANEMIALVL with HWMHEMOLEVELALT, which reports the male household member's hemoglobin level in g/dl, adjusted for altitude, to better determine the man's anemia level.
