Questionnaire Text

Questionnaire form view entire document:  text  image

5. Month and year of birth and age
a. Month: ____
Year: ____
b. How old are you? (in years): ____
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Question 05: Month, year of birth and age
Please ask for and fill out the month and year when the respondent was born. If the respondent remembers the year of birth only, please note the year and leave the space for month blank. If the respondent does not remember/know his/her age, please estimate his/her age and do not bother with the year of birth.

If the respondent does not know the month and year of birth based on the Islamic calendar, ask for the Javanese calendar and Sundanese calendar. Note: the characteristics of the calendars are available in the notebook and counted based on age conversion from the month and year into the Christian year.

Age data are very important for population data as the source of basic information for accounting and estimation of fertility, mortality, population projections and other population needs.

Age characteristics must be filled in, even if the result from best estimation

Please ask for the respondent's age and put it directly into the field box. Age is counted in rounded down years or according to the latest birthday celebration. Age counting is based on the Christian year. Field experiences on data collection show a tendency for the respondent to round up his/her real age. In order to ensure data quality, please reconfirm again whether he/she has passed his/her birthday age according to the prior answer.

In order to ensure the accuracy of the respondent's age, please probe [following] the steps below:

1. Go in search of personal identity information such as: official letter registration of birth, baptism card, immunization card, Health Monitoring Card (KMS, colloquially called kartu menuju sehat), other notes made by their parents. Please pay attention to the date of issue recorded.

2. Convert the respondent's birthday into the Christian year if respondents only remember and know how to account for their birthday in the Arabic calendar or others, as the majority of Indonesians are Moslem and only recognize and remember important Islamic occurrences, such as: Ied celebration, Hajj, Prophet Mohammad Birth Celebration. To do so, please apply the Age Conversion methods.

3. Please confirm the respondent's birth date by relating [it to] important well-known occurrences that happened in Indonesia at the regional and national levels; among others: disasters, floods, volcanic eruptions, fires, election of the village's head, Indonesian Independence Day (1945), the first Indonesian election (1995), September Communism Movement (G30 S/PKI).

4. The age of a child respondent can often be attained by comparing his/her age with [that of] a sibling. Please try to estimate the youngest child's age, subsequently tracing and comparing the age of older siblings and associated children with the abilities of the child at that age, such as: the first step, sitting, walking and standing when the younger sibling was born or during the mother's pregnancy.

5. Compare the age of the respondent's child with the age of neighbors' children and children of other relatives, then estimate the age.

6. For respondents with an age equal to or greater than 98 years old, please write "98" into the box.