Demographic and Health Surveys Methodology - Measure DHS

3. Failure to Limita) Include women who are pregnant who say that they did not want another child beforethey became pregnant.b) Include women who are less than six months postpartum amenorrheic who say that theydid not want another child before they became pregnant.4. For Total FailureInclude women classified in the numerator for failure to space or failure to limit (sum of thetwo numerators).Total Demand for Family PlanningIn “A” core questionnaire surveys, sum of numerators for unmet need, met need, and contraceptivefailure. In “B” core questionnaire surveys, sum of numerators for unmet need and met need (failure notmeasured and assumed zero).A. Denominator: Number of currently married women.B. Divide all numerators by denominators and multiply by 100 to get percentages.C. Percentage of demand satisfied: Divide percentage for total met need by percentage total demandfor family planning and multiply by 100.Handling of Missing ValuesSeveral variables make up the construction of the standard recode variable for need for family planning.Only if a respondent cannot be classified in any category due to missing information required for acategory, then the recode variable takes on a missing value for that respondent. Respondents with missingvalues on the need recode variable are excluded from both numerators and denominator.Notes and ConsiderationsThe classification of need for family planning is included as a standard variable (V626) in the DHSstandard recode data sets. The information on calculation given above is for reference and does not needto be recalculated to produce tables.AssumptionsIn “B” core questionnaire surveys, there is no information on pregnancies and births due to contraceptivefailure, which is therefore assumed to be zero in the calculation of total demand.Changes over TimeSeveral changes occurred in the calculation of need for family planning. The latest are the following: Forlater phase III and phase IV surveys, declarations of infecundity were included, as well as the lack ofbirths in the preceding five years, as an indication of infecundity. Also, the question on whether it wouldbe a problem if a woman found out that she were pregnant in the next few weeks was added in thedetermination of unmet need for women who are undecided about whether they want another child orwhen they want another child. Due to these changes, comparisons of unmet need and demand for familyplanning between surveys may not be valid if based on country reports.Guide to DHS Statistics 81 Updated September 2006