Questionnaire Text

Questionnaire form view entire document:  text  image
[Questions 4-14 were asked of all persons who stayed in the residence last night.]

4. What is your date of birth?

Ask for birth record care. If date of birth, unknown, estimate age in years

____ Day
____ Month
____ Year
____ Age in years
Questionnaire instructions view entire document:  text  image
Section 6 - The census questions

Parts A and B - Urban and RNVs - Questions 1 to 5
Your job as an interviewer to find out and write down on the census form the names of

(i) All people who usually live at the dwelling. Make sure you probe for any old people living in the dwelling (grandparents etc.), any young babies, any adopted children.
(ii) Any people who are visiting the dwelling. This could be people who are only staying a few days; on the other hand they may have been there a few months already.
Note: For the census we do not wish to define a visitor. If a person says he is a visitor, put him/her in the visitors section.
(iii) Any people who slept at the dwelling the night before you are interviewing there

You write down the names of these people in the answer boxes for Ql.

Question 4

What is your date of birth?

In this question you must use probing and the notable events book to work out people's ages.

Quite often parents have health record cards for young children. So always ask if the health record cards are available.

Always try to obtain the day, month and year of birth. If this is not available then try your best to get the month and year. Sometimes you will be able to get an estimate of the month and in these cases you must give the estimate of the month.

Example
A father knows his son is definitely 5 years old and not yet 6 because he was born just a few weeks before Independence in 1975. In this case the month of birth is probably August and you write 8/75 on the census form.

Age conversion chart
The back page of this manual has an age conversion table. Always use this table. That is you must always enter both the age in years and the year of birth in the boxes in question 4. When the month is known or you can estimate it then enter month as well. When day of birth is known then enter this also.

How to use the notable events book
The procedure for using the Notable Events Book is given in the front of the Notable Events Book. You will be shown how to use this book during training.
For easy reference copy the notable events for the District or area you are working in onto the inside of the back of this manual.

[pg.53]

Don't suggest ages to people
There is a strong temptation to suggest ages to people, particularly to someone who is taking a long time to work out their age or to someone who has got no idea of their age. Don't do this. Use the Notable Events Book.

Check ages with rest of family structure
You can do a rough check to see if someone's age looks about right by checking it against the family structure and the ages of other people in the family.

Example
A woman tells you she is 28, but later on during the interview it turns out that she has a 17 year old son. That would make her 11 when she gave birth. In this case either the son's or the mother's age is incorrect.
Part C - Rural Villages

Questions 1 to 5

Question 4

What is your date of birth?
[pg.59]

The PDS Man will do most of the work on ages. He will work out the age of each person on the Family Record Card
Interviewers copy down the Date of Birth and the Age in Years onto the Census Form.
If a Household has some visitors, the Interviewer must work out their ages because visitors will not be written on the Family Record Card.
Where possible, Health Cards or Clinic Cards should be used to find out the exact date of birth of children. Most mother will have these cards.

Working out ages
The PDS Man is to convert 'Year of Birth' to 'Age in Years', by using the 'Age Conversion Table' on the back of this Manual.
The PDS Man must check these ages. Look to see if the person appears to be the age that is written down.
Also look for 'Impossible Ages' i.e. when a woman has a child that is almost as old as she is.
If you think that the age written on the Family Record Card is wrong you must change it. You must work out how old that person really is.
The way to work out how old that person's age is by using the Notable Events Book.
Whenever possible you should write down the month of birth as well as the year. This is especially important for young people under 10 years old. If the mother does not know the month, you can guess by asking if the child was born before or after the Independence Month (September).
Interviewers must ask visitors if they know how old they are. If they are not sure of their age you must work it out by using the Notable Events Book.

Writing ages onto the census form
You must fill in the date of birth and the age in years. You should write down the Month as well as year of birth if at all possible.