Demographic and Health Surveys Methodology - Measure DHS

BIRTH INTERVALSStatistics: Percent Distribution by Months Since Preceding BirthDefinitionPercentage of births in the five years preceding the survey by specified grouped number of months sincethe preceding birth.A. Coverage: All second- and higher-order births that occurred in the 0–59 months precedingthe interview.B. Numerator: Number of births whose interval with the preceding birth is within thespecified group.C. Denominator: Total number of births.CalculationA. Covered births: Children both surviving and dead who have a difference between the date ofinterview and their birth date (both in CMC format) of 0–59 months, excluding first-bornchildren.B. Preceding birth interval: Difference between birth date of child and birth date of preceding child(in CMC format) grouped into categories. For children of multiple births, the birth date of thepreceding child is the number of months since the end of the preceding pregnancy that ended in alive birth.C. Numerators for each birth interval category are divided by the same denominator and multipliedby 100 to obtain percentages.Handling of Missing ValuesNot applicable—Birth dates of children are imputed if missing; therefore birth dates do not have missingvalues.Notes and ConsiderationsPercentages add up to 100 percent.First-order births (and their twins) are excluded from both numerators and denominators.Births in the month of interview are included and births 60 months before the interview are excluded.Guide to DHS Statistics 36 Updated September 2006