Definition
EXPOSURE1 (V623) is a constructed variable that draws upon responses to several questions to differentiate between pregnant women, postpartum amenorrheic women, menopausal or infecund women, and fecund women.
When children are chosen as the unit of analysis, the woman respondent indicates the mother of the child.
According to the DHS Recode Manuals, these categories are actualized as follows:
Pregnant women
Postpartum amenorrheic women are those whose period has not returned since the last birth in the three/five years preceding the survey.
Women are defined as being menopausal if they are not pregnant and not postpartum amenorrheic, are not currently using a contraceptive method, and have not had a period in the six months preceding the survey or report they are in menopause.
Women are defined as being infecund if they are not menopausal and not postpartum amenorrheic and not pregnant, have had no birth in the five years preceding the survey, and either (Model "A" countries) have been continuously married and have not used contraception in the five years preceding the survey, or (Model "B" countries) have been married one time and first married five or more years before the survey and have never used contraception.
Fecund women are all women not included in the preceding categories.