AHRI HDSS:Individual Health Surveillance HIV 2011

The Africa Centre Demographic Information System (ACDIS) was established in 2000 by the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI; formerly the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies) covering a population of approximately 85,0000 residents and non-residents from an area 438km2 in size in uMkhanyakude district, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa.

In 2011, the “Eligibility List” for the 2011 Round of the HIV Surveillance used 10 December 2011 as its reference date. The criteria for inclusion were different for Residents and non-Residents. For Residents (i.e., those with an Individual Residency episode when last seen) all males and females aged 15 and over were selected. For Non-Residents a stratified sampling procedure was adopted with the overall objective of obtaining a representative sample of approximately10% of all non-residents aged 15-49 (females) and 15-54 (males). The 10 strata were defined by sex and by and five 'return patterns', i.e. self-stated frequencies of returning home to the household in the DSA ('annual', 'occasional', 'month end', 'frequent', and 'other'). Other criteria were also used, and full details are available separately.

The total number eligible, Resident and Non-resident, was 38155, so this is the number of rows in the dataset.

The field visits took place from January 2011 to Dec 2011. At the time of visit some people included in the Eligibility List were found to in fact be ineligible - perhaps because they were dead, very sick, or had out migrated - events either not known about at the time the Eligibility List was compiled or occurring between the drawing up of the Eligibility List and the actual visit. These 'retrospective ineligibilities' are identifiable in the dataset as 'Premature Completions' with reasons such as “Death or “Outmigration”. There were also some individuals who could not be contacted, even after repeated visits and 'tracking' attempts for those who were reported to have moved. These are identifiable as PrematureCompletionReason = Non-Contact. Additionally, some people were contacted but refused to participate in the survey. They are identifiable by VisitType = Refusal. Finally, there are some who participated in the survey, but refused the HIV test offered. They are identifiable as HIVRefused = 'Y'

Note that the section asking about height, weight and blood pressure, which was added in 2010 is removed again. Individuals were free to refuse to participate in and to withdraw from the individual surveys, without any impact on routine health care or other services to which they were entitled. If a household refused to participate in the household component, its members were not invited to participate in the individual component during that same household visit.

Note: Users of these datasets are strongly encouraged to refer to the questionnaires included in the documentation for the dataset to check carefully for any changes in question wording, ordering, options offered etc. This document does not attempt to describe every single change and variation.

For more refer:

1. Tanser F, Hosegood V, Bärnighausen T, Herbst K, Nyirenda M, Muhwava W, Newell C, Viljoen J, Mutevedzi T, Newell ML. Cohort Profile: Africa Centre Demographic Information System (ACDIS) and population-based HIV survey. Int J Epidemiol. 2008 Oct;37(5):956-62. doi: 10.1093/ije/dym211. Epub 2007 Nov 12. PMID: 17998242; PMCID: PMC2557060.