Back to overview
Closed for applications

Write your paper based on Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data on reproductive and child health

For PhD students and researchers interested in skills to independently analyse DHS data on reproductive and child health: take this hybrid 13-week course resulting in your own publishable-quality research paper.

Deadline: 1 November 2023

Short Courses

English

-

About the course

Rationale

Why

The DHS is a rich and important source of data in LMICs, but is severely underused by researchers and policy-makers in these countries. This course aims to build the capacity to conduct quantitative analysis on the DHS data focusing on researchers within LMICs and to contribute to expanding the country-level capacity to further impart such skills. Having this capacity within LMICs will help raise and answer questions that are relevant to their particular setting.

 

What

The purpose of this course is to support researchers in analyzing DHS data, focusing on sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health. As a course participant, you will be expected to pursue a key analysis idea and conduct data analysis under the guidance of the course coaches. Participants are exposed to the topics and questions of others in the course to expand their insights. The objective is to have an advanced draft of a publishable research paper by the end of the course, and to submit the manuscript to a scientific journal within a month of course completion.

 

For Whom

This course is primarily, but not exclusively, aimed at junior to mid-level health researchers from LMICs, including Masters-level graduates and PhD students interested in understanding and using DHS data. Participants must have a good command of a statistical software package (we can support users of STATA, R and SPSS) and working knowledge in statistics commensurate with the proposed analysis plan.

 

How

The course is organized by Dr. Lenka Benova. During the online phase and the face-to-face week, you will be able to discuss analysis strategies and statistical approaches with the ITM statistician if needed. All participants will be assigned a coach based on the thematic focus of the participants’ research, who will help guide them during the online phase. Some coaches will also be available during the face-to-face week. All coaches are quantitative health researchers with extensive knowledge of DHS surveys and the field of sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, adolescent, and child health. A maximum of two course participants will be assigned to each coach.

Learning objectives

At the end of the course you will be able to:

  • Formulate a research question related to sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and/or adolescent health which is answerable by using available DHS data;
  • Develop an analysis plan using available online resources (DHS reports, repositories of analysis code, instructional videos, published literature, peer and coach support);
  • Develop a manuscript concept note;
  • Conduct data analysis using rigorous statistical methods and document analysis procedures and code in a replicable manner;
  • Clearly present findings using tables and graphs;
  • Interpret data analysis findings considering available literature, data, and analysis limitations; and
  • Write a publishable-quality research paper.
100

Tuition fee

€ 730 EEA / 1900 non-EEA

Course Leader(s)

  • Lenka Benova

Course Administrator(s)

  • Marianne Hilgert
  • Sanae El Harrak

Course Coordinator(s)

  • Marjan Pirard

Contact

  • DHS@itg.be