Reproductive Health Questionnaire (PAPFAM = Pan Arab Family Health Survey)Tool Name: Reproductive Health Questionnaire (PAPFAM = Pan Arab Family Health Survey) Origin / Source: PAPFAM is a regional Project and will be executed by the League of Arab States. Thus the following support PAPFAM activities:
Technical area: Maternal and Newborn Health Basic Description: The Reproductive Health Questionnaire is one component of the PAPFAM survey which was originally developed out of the SMCHS (Syrian Maternal and Child Health Survey) and the PAPCHILD (Pan Arab Project for Child Development) and aims to provide information on Arab family health. It obtains information on health status measures of the Arabic mothers and children and their underlying determinants.
Country Applications: 2001: Tunisia, Jamahira, and Syria. 2002: Sudan, Algeria, Djibouti, Jordan and Morocco. 2003: Lebanon, Yemen, Palestine, and Iraq The project will consider the implementation on the other Arab countries (Comoros, Egypt, Mauritania and Somalia) on the following stages. Language(s) Available: Arabic, French and English Purpose: Formulating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the reproductive health policies and programs. Technical Scope/Purpose : Population based survey including M & E of knowledge attitudes and behaviors. Design: cross-sectional household survey with a sampling size about 6000-7000 (core questionnaires). The "Core" consists of 3 parts. Part II is the Reproductive Health Questionnaire. Some optional modules will be used upon country request. Method: Quantitative Frequency of Administration: depends on the country, usually 5 years from the original survey. Key Users of the Information: Primary Users: Governments, particularly Ministries of Health and Social Sector, as well as National Statistics Offices. Secondary Users: USAID Missions, Cooperating Agencies and other international donors (WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, WB), as well as private sector, including NGOs and PVOs.
Objectives and Scope of the Tool: The PAPFAM reproductive health questionnaire is designed to collect countrywide information through individual interviews with all ever-married women under age 50 at the household level. The questionnaire consists of different sections. It obtains information on the following:
Key Indicators: WHO Indicators Total fertility rate: total number of children a woman would have by the end of her reproductive period if she experienced the currently prevailing age-specific fertility rates throughout childbearing life. Contraceptive prevalence rate: percentage of women of reproductive age who are using (or whose partner is using) a contraceptive method at a particular point in time. Antenatal care coverage: Percentage of women attended, at least once during pregnancy, by skilled health personnel (excluding trained or untrained traditional birth attendants) for reasons relating to pregnancy. (a) percent distribution of births in the five years preceding the survey by source of antenatal care (type of health care provider); (b) percentage of live births in the five years preceding the survey by number of antenatal care visits, and by the stage of pregnancy at the time of the first visit; (c) percent distribution of live births in the five years preceding the survey for which mothers received antenatal care, by content of antenatal care. Births attended by skilled health personnel: Percentage of births attended by skilled health personnel a) percentage of live births in the five years preceding the survey by place of delivery and type of health provider during delivery, a nd (b) percentage of live births by cesarean sections, forceps or vacuum (women's report) Low birth weight prevalence: percentage of live births that weigh less than 2500 g.). Perinatal and neonatal mortality rate: Number of perinatal/neonatal deaths per 100 total births. . Knowledge of HIV-related prevention practices: the percentage of women of reproductive age who correctly identify valid ways (one, two or more) to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS. Prevalence of infertility in women : Percentage of women of reproductive age(15-49) at risk of pregnancy (not pregnant, sexually active, non-contracepting and non-lactating) who report trying for a pregnancy for two years or more. Other Indicators include but are not limited to the following: Postnatal care: percentage of live births in the five years preceding the survey for which mothers received postnatal care by place of care, type of health care provider, and time of care (days after delivery Chronic and other reproductive morbidity: Number of women who suffer from any acute or chronic diseases due to child bearing. There are many questionnaires based on reported morbidity, but a lot of validation studies have shown that there as useful as biomedical ones (editorial comment) Tetanus toxoid coverage Reported incidence of Night blindness Tool Design The woman's questionnaire consists of several modules and requires that all ever-married women under age 50 report on several health, nutrition and lifestyle issues. The PAPFAM survey is conducted in a national statistically representative sample of households and gathers information from eligible respondents, i.e. ever-married women under age 50. It requires active and continuous participation of the health, social and statistical institutions in the country. External technical assistance is provided during training, for monitoring quality of fieldwork, and assistance during data processing. Fieldwork requires 3-5 months to be completed. Implementation and Training: LAS (League of Arab States) is the main executing agency for the project and also has the overall auspices. Training for the main survey takes usually four to five weeks. Recruitment criteria for the trainees include educational attainment, maturity, ability to spend one month in training and at least three months in the field, and experience in other surveys. Training should take place in a central location. Initially, training consists of lectures on how to complete questionnaires, with mock and demonstration interviews. Participants spend several days practicing interviewing in urban and rural areas. Trainees with the best performance are selected as supervisors and field editors. In this case, they receive an additional two to three day training. Usually each survey field team is composed of 1 male supervisor, 1 female field editor, and 5 female interviewers. In order to monitor quality of the data collection, a number of quality control teams are set up by the implementing organization to check on the field teams.
Manuals and Guidelines: Core questionnaires (Reproductive Health is Part II) Optional modules, which will be used upon country request (i.e. Maternal Mortality Module) Supervisors manual Interviewers manual Sampling manual Training manual Office editing and coding manual Data entry and editing manual Preliminary report manual Principal report manual Data Processing and Analysis: Questionnaires are checked by field editors at the end of each day. After field editing they are returned to the main survey office for data processing. The processing operation consists of office editing, coding of open-ended questions, data entry, and editing inconsistencies found by the computer programs. Reporting and Dissemination of Results: Two reports are prepared based on the PAPFAM data: A preliminary and a main report. The preliminary report is done in the country and is used by the local officials in the country that it deems. The main report is about 150-200 pages of text, tables and graphs. It presents detailed information on family health, nutrition, fertility, infant and child mortality, family planning and fertility preferences. Cost: PAPFAM will work with governments to set priorities and make informed choices to ensure that limited funds are used effectively. Contact: The Pan Arab Project for Family Health |