AHRI.HDSS.Individual Health Surveillance HIV 2003-04
South Africa, 2003 - 2005
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Reference ID
RD05-01.ACDIS.HIV.2003-4
Producer(s)
Dr Abraham Jacobus Herbst, Prof. Willem Hanekom, Prof. Janet Seeley, Prof. Maryam Shahmanesh, Dr. Guy Harling, Dr. Mark Siedner
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Metadata
Created on
Jun 03, 2025
Last modified
Jun 03, 2025
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Identification
Survey ID number
RD05-01.ACDIS.HIV.2003-4
Title
AHRI.HDSS.Individual Health Surveillance HIV 2003-04
Country
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| South Africa | ZA |
Abstract
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 2003, population-based individual health surveillance (funded by the Wellcome Trust, UK) was started in ACDIS through annual surveys. The field visits took place from November 2002 to February 2005, the vast majority (>97%) during 2003-04. The annual individual health surveillance involved drawing, at the start of each data collection surveillance round, an “Eligibility List” of all adult eligible individuals, and then, during the data collection round, attempting to visit and contact those individuals. At the time of visit some people included in the Eligibility List were found to in fact be ineligible - perhaps because they were dead 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 =?? (i.e.Non-Contact). Additionally, a small number were contacted but refused to participate in the survey. They are identifiable by VisitType = Refused. Finally, there are some who participated in the survey, but refused the HIV test offered. They are identifiable as HIVRefused = 'Y'.
This dataset includes only those included in the Eligibility List. It does not include the small number (x) of 'Voluntary walk-in Testers' i.e., individuals who were not part of the Eligibility List, but who visited Counselling Centres and requested an HIV test.
Eligibility criteria for inclusion into the Eligibility List was different for residents and non-residents. For residents: resident males aged 15 and 54 and resident females aged 15 and 49 were included. For non-residents: a 10% stratified sample of non-residents was also included in the Eligibility List. A specific reference date was used to draw the Eligibility List.
Collection of the heights/weights/blood pressures was abandoned after part of the Round (in March 2004) as it was very slow, especially the blood pressures.
For 2003-04 General Health dataset, the records defined, for this dataset as being those Woman/ManStatusObservations with visit dates between 1 Jan 2003 and 31 Dec 2004 and DSS Round not 101 or 102. This spans DSS Rounds 8, 9 and 10 and 10. 97% of the visits actually took place between February 2003 and April 2004. Before then the forms used are known as 'WHL' or 'MGL' for which a separate dataset exists. Also, after WGHv1/MGHv1 there were substantially shorter forms used, called WGHv2/ MGHv2. That is also a separately available dataset.
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.
In 2003, population-based individual health surveillance (funded by the Wellcome Trust, UK) was started in ACDIS through annual surveys. The field visits took place from November 2002 to February 2005, the vast majority (>97%) during 2003-04. The annual individual health surveillance involved drawing, at the start of each data collection surveillance round, an “Eligibility List” of all adult eligible individuals, and then, during the data collection round, attempting to visit and contact those individuals. At the time of visit some people included in the Eligibility List were found to in fact be ineligible - perhaps because they were dead 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 =?? (i.e.Non-Contact). Additionally, a small number were contacted but refused to participate in the survey. They are identifiable by VisitType = Refused. Finally, there are some who participated in the survey, but refused the HIV test offered. They are identifiable as HIVRefused = 'Y'.
This dataset includes only those included in the Eligibility List. It does not include the small number (x) of 'Voluntary walk-in Testers' i.e., individuals who were not part of the Eligibility List, but who visited Counselling Centres and requested an HIV test.
Eligibility criteria for inclusion into the Eligibility List was different for residents and non-residents. For residents: resident males aged 15 and 54 and resident females aged 15 and 49 were included. For non-residents: a 10% stratified sample of non-residents was also included in the Eligibility List. A specific reference date was used to draw the Eligibility List.
Collection of the heights/weights/blood pressures was abandoned after part of the Round (in March 2004) as it was very slow, especially the blood pressures.
For 2003-04 General Health dataset, the records defined, for this dataset as being those Woman/ManStatusObservations with visit dates between 1 Jan 2003 and 31 Dec 2004 and DSS Round not 101 or 102. This spans DSS Rounds 8, 9 and 10 and 10. 97% of the visits actually took place between February 2003 and April 2004. Before then the forms used are known as 'WHL' or 'MGL' for which a separate dataset exists. Also, after WGHv1/MGHv1 there were substantially shorter forms used, called WGHv2/ MGHv2. That is also a separately available dataset.
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.
Kind of Data
Surveillance data
Unit of Analysis
AHRI HDSS Individual surveillance eligible individuals
Version
Version Description
v2.0.0
Scope
Topics
Keywords
South Africa, Surveillance, Epidemiology, HIV, Population Cohort
Coverage
Geographic Coverage
AHRI's Population Intervention Programme Study Area (PIPSA) is situated in uMkhanyakude district KwaZulu-Natal province which is approximately 200km north of Durban.
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.
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.
Universe
All resident household members from AHRI's DSA who met eligibility criteria and gave informed consent for their surveillance participation.
Producers and sponsors
Primary investigators
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Dr Abraham Jacobus Herbst | Africa Health Research Institute |
| Prof. Willem Hanekom | Africa Health Research Institute |
| Prof. Janet Seeley | Africa Health Research Institute |
| Prof. Maryam Shahmanesh | Africa Health Research Institute |
| Dr. Guy Harling | Africa Health Research Institute |
| Dr. Mark Siedner | Africa Health Research Institute |
Producers
| Name |
|---|
| Africa Health Research Institute |
Funding Agency/Sponsor
| Name | Abbreviation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome Trust | WT | Funder |
| DSI-MRC South African Population Research Infrastructure Network | SAPRIN | Funder |
Other Identifications/Acknowledgments
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Thobeka Mngomezulu | AHRI | Data collection |
| Phumzile Dlamini | AHRI | Data collection |
| Lindiwe Sithole | AHRI | Data collection |
| Bonginkosi Ntimane | AHRI | Data quality |
| Njabulo Myeni | AHRI | Data quality |
| Eugene Ehlers | AHRI | Software Development |
| Eugene Prenzler | AHRI | Data Analytics |
| Brendan Gilbert | AHRI | IT infrastructure |
| Sweetness Dube | AHRI | Data documentation |
| Siyabonga Nxumalo | AHRI | Research Data management |
| Dickman Gareta | AHRI | Research Data management |
| Kathy Baisley | AHRI | Statistics |
Sampling
Sampling Procedure
All individuals meeting the eligibility criteria described in the abstract
Data collection
Dates of Data Collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2003-03-09 | 2005-10-27 |
Data processing
Data Editing
Surveillance data is processed and stored on servers under the physical control of AHRI until datasets are made available on the data repository. The data is de-identified and can then be downloaded for processing on the data user's computer.
Data is stored on industry-standard relational databases with data integrity and user authentication for access control. Data is replicated on at least a daily basis to the Durban site of the Institution to provide secure offsite storage of data. Transactional logs are backed up every 30 minutes to enable recovery of data in the event of equipment failure.
All users of the system are authenticated through individual passwords with minimum complexity and regular change rules (passwords must be at least eight digits, with a mix of small and capital letters, at least one numeric or non-alphabetic digit and changed at least every 45 days). AHRI uses industry standard malware and intrusion detection with at least annual penetration tests by a reputable outside security audit company.
Both at the Institute and for the clinic-based data collection, a client-server architecture is implemented where data is not stored on laptops or local workstation, but only on a central server with restricted physical access. Specifically, at the clinics the local server is enclosed in a tamper-proof enclosure kept under lock and key. The server hard disk is encrypted.
Data is stored on industry-standard relational databases with data integrity and user authentication for access control. Data is replicated on at least a daily basis to the Durban site of the Institution to provide secure offsite storage of data. Transactional logs are backed up every 30 minutes to enable recovery of data in the event of equipment failure.
All users of the system are authenticated through individual passwords with minimum complexity and regular change rules (passwords must be at least eight digits, with a mix of small and capital letters, at least one numeric or non-alphabetic digit and changed at least every 45 days). AHRI uses industry standard malware and intrusion detection with at least annual penetration tests by a reputable outside security audit company.
Both at the Institute and for the clinic-based data collection, a client-server architecture is implemented where data is not stored on laptops or local workstation, but only on a central server with restricted physical access. Specifically, at the clinics the local server is enclosed in a tamper-proof enclosure kept under lock and key. The server hard disk is encrypted.
Access policy
Access conditions
Access to the data requires accurate completion of the online data access application form accessible on the AHRI Data repository(<https://data.ahri.org/>). Data users are required to abide by the data use conditions stipulated on the application for access to the data. Failure to do so may result in their data access privileges being revoked by the Data Custodian. In order to recognise the effort and intellectual contributions of AHRI investigators in producing and curating the data, users of AHRI data must acknowledge the source of the data and abide by the terms and conditions under which the data is accessed and must cite the dataset in publication using the citation provided as part of this documentation. All analytical datasets published on the AHRI Data Repository are assigned digital object identifier (DOIs) and the DOIs can be found on the Data Repository under Study Description tab - Access policy. AHRI data users are required to always cite the dataset using the relevant DOI.
Citation requirements
Herbst, A. J., Hanekom, W., Seeley, J., Shahmanesh, M., Harling, G., & Siedner, M. (2025). AHRI.HDSS.Individual Health Surveillance HIV 2003-04 [Data set]. Africa Health Research Institute. DOI:https://doi.org/10.23664/RD05-01.ACDIS.HIV.2003-4
Metadata production
DDI Document ID
DDI.RD05-01.ACDIS.HIV.2003-4
Producers
| Name | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Africa Health Research Institute | AHRI |