Phone surveillance, from scratch: Novel sample design features of the nationally representative Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)

The first round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)–a nationwide phone panel consisting of 12,100 households–was implemented between December 2021 and February 2022. The objective of the survey was to collect data on a wide range of household and individual welfare indicators–including we...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity
Format: Artículo preliminar
Language:Inglés
Published: International Food Policy Research Institute 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140971
_version_ 1855527456990035968
author Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity
author_browse Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity
author_facet Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity
author_sort Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description The first round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)–a nationwide phone panel consisting of 12,100 households–was implemented between December 2021 and February 2022. The objective of the survey was to collect data on a wide range of household and individual welfare indicators–including wealth, livelihoods, unemployment, food insecurity, diet quality, health shocks, and coping strategies–in a country exceptionally hard hit by conflict, severe economic collapse, and several damaging waves of COVID-19. The respondents interviewed in the MHWS were purposely selected from a large phone database aimed at being representative at the region/state level and urban/rural level in Myanmar. In this paper, we discuss two key steps taken to ensure that the MHWS is nationally and subnationally representative at the state/region and urban/rural level. First, we used a quota-based sampling strategy by setting survey quotas for respondents’ geography, education, farming status, gender, and rural/urban residence. This sampling strategy is used to address the well-known drawbacks of phone survey samples (e.g., the over-sampling of more educated respondents) and the survey’s particular interest in over-sampling farm households and equally sampling men and women. Second, we constructed household, population, and individual level weighting factors to further ensure that the survey generates nationally and subnationally representative statistics. To assess the effectiveness of these two strategies on achieving representativeness and consistency with previous surveys, we compare results from the MHWS to earlier nationally representative datasets, focusing on sample sizes of interviewed households for each state/region, and on education levels, farm/non-farm occupation, urban/rural residence, as well as respondents’ housing characteristics, which are unlikely to change substantially over short periods of time. We show that the phone-based MHWS has broader geographical coverage than previous national surveys, reaching 310 of Myanmar’s 330 townships. Moreover, our sampling approach was generally effective in reducing the education bias of phone surveys, except for a handful of states/regions. The MHWS is also unique in providing equal representation of male and female respondents. Additionally, the MHWS sampling and weighting strategies produce statistics on key indicators that closely mirror results from the two most recent national surveys in Myanmar. Overall, the results suggest that these strategies are successful in generating a subnationally representative phone survey that collected data on a rich array of household welfare indicators in exceptionally difficult political and economic circumstances.
format Artículo preliminar
id CGSpace140971
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher International Food Policy Research Institute
publisherStr International Food Policy Research Institute
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1409712025-12-08T10:11:39Z Phone surveillance, from scratch: Novel sample design features of the nationally representative Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS) Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity education surveys health households urban areas employment welfare population food security diet rural areas The first round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)–a nationwide phone panel consisting of 12,100 households–was implemented between December 2021 and February 2022. The objective of the survey was to collect data on a wide range of household and individual welfare indicators–including wealth, livelihoods, unemployment, food insecurity, diet quality, health shocks, and coping strategies–in a country exceptionally hard hit by conflict, severe economic collapse, and several damaging waves of COVID-19. The respondents interviewed in the MHWS were purposely selected from a large phone database aimed at being representative at the region/state level and urban/rural level in Myanmar. In this paper, we discuss two key steps taken to ensure that the MHWS is nationally and subnationally representative at the state/region and urban/rural level. First, we used a quota-based sampling strategy by setting survey quotas for respondents’ geography, education, farming status, gender, and rural/urban residence. This sampling strategy is used to address the well-known drawbacks of phone survey samples (e.g., the over-sampling of more educated respondents) and the survey’s particular interest in over-sampling farm households and equally sampling men and women. Second, we constructed household, population, and individual level weighting factors to further ensure that the survey generates nationally and subnationally representative statistics. To assess the effectiveness of these two strategies on achieving representativeness and consistency with previous surveys, we compare results from the MHWS to earlier nationally representative datasets, focusing on sample sizes of interviewed households for each state/region, and on education levels, farm/non-farm occupation, urban/rural residence, as well as respondents’ housing characteristics, which are unlikely to change substantially over short periods of time. We show that the phone-based MHWS has broader geographical coverage than previous national surveys, reaching 310 of Myanmar’s 330 townships. Moreover, our sampling approach was generally effective in reducing the education bias of phone surveys, except for a handful of states/regions. The MHWS is also unique in providing equal representation of male and female respondents. Additionally, the MHWS sampling and weighting strategies produce statistics on key indicators that closely mirror results from the two most recent national surveys in Myanmar. Overall, the results suggest that these strategies are successful in generating a subnationally representative phone survey that collected data on a rich array of household welfare indicators in exceptionally difficult political and economic circumstances. 2022-04-04 2024-04-12T13:36:59Z 2024-04-12T13:36:59Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140971 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136353 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA). 2022. Phone surveillance, from scratch: Novel sample design features of the nationally representative Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS). Myanmar SSP Working Paper 16. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.135837.
spellingShingle education
surveys
health
households
urban areas
employment
welfare
population
food security
diet
rural areas
Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity
Phone surveillance, from scratch: Novel sample design features of the nationally representative Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)
title Phone surveillance, from scratch: Novel sample design features of the nationally representative Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)
title_full Phone surveillance, from scratch: Novel sample design features of the nationally representative Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)
title_fullStr Phone surveillance, from scratch: Novel sample design features of the nationally representative Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)
title_full_unstemmed Phone surveillance, from scratch: Novel sample design features of the nationally representative Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)
title_short Phone surveillance, from scratch: Novel sample design features of the nationally representative Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)
title_sort phone surveillance from scratch novel sample design features of the nationally representative myanmar household welfare survey mhws
topic education
surveys
health
households
urban areas
employment
welfare
population
food security
diet
rural areas
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140971
work_keys_str_mv AT myanmaragriculturepolicysupportactivity phonesurveillancefromscratchnovelsampledesignfeaturesofthenationallyrepresentativemyanmarhouseholdwelfaresurveymhws