Demographic and Health Surveys Methodology - Measure DHS

FIRST-YEAR CONTRACEPTIVE DISCONTINUATION RATESStatistics: Percentage of Episodes of Contraceptive Use Where the Specific Method isDiscontinued Within 12 Months After Beginning Its Use, by Reason forDiscontinuation, According to Specific MethodThe discontinuation rates are based on episodes of use of particular methods. An individual woman maycontribute more than one episode to the calculation. The calculation procedure is based on life tablemethods.DefinitionA. Coverage:1. Population base.2. Contraceptive use episodes of all interviewed women who used a contraceptive methodin the five years preceding the survey.3. Time period: Users who began an episode of use 3–59 months before the interview.B. Discontinuation rate: Users who discontinue using a contraceptive method within 12 months ofbeginning use during a specific episode of use. Users who switch to another method areconsidered to have discontinued the previous method at the time of switching.C. Exposure: Duration of use of a specific method within one episode of use. Exposure begins withinitial month of use and ends with discontinuation or with the month of interview if method wasstill being used at the time of the interview.CalculationA. In the DHS standard recode file, the data for contraceptive discontinuation rates come from thereproductive calendar. The reproductive calendar in the questionnaire consists of two or morecolumns of boxes, where each box represents a specific calendar month. The reproductivecalendar usually begins with the first month of the fifth calendar year before the date of the startof fieldwork. For example, if the fieldwork began in July 2000, the calendar would start inJanuary 1995. In the first column, episodes of use of contraception are indicated by placing amethod code in the boxes that correspond to the calendar months when used. Pregnancies, births,and nonlive birth terminations are also represented in this column by placing the correspondingcodes in the appropriate months. Months with codes “0” are those in which the woman did notuse contraception, was not pregnant, did not give birth, or did not have a fetal loss or stillbirth. Inthe second column, the reason for contraceptive discontinuation is noted in the box thatcorresponds to the last month of use.Guide to DHS Statistics 55 Updated September 2006