Dynamic household structure and composition: a manual for longitudinal analysis of living arrangements

Abstract

Objective: This research note introduces a set of tools to conduct analysis of household structure and composition with either limited or comprehensive longitudinal data. The data used here are from Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems in Africa, but the methods can be adapted and applied to other longitudinal micro-data such as register data. A training manual describing the procedures for creating time-varying household measures step-by-step is supplied as supplementary material to this note. Code is provided in STATA but can easily be translated for other statistical software, and the logic for each step remains the same. Results: The analysis of household structure demonstrates how with limited data (such as a household identifier), it is possible to construct time-varying measures of household membership, including household size or the number of members in specific age and sex groups. The analysis of household composition demonstrates how with expanded data (including links to parents in addition to residence status in the same household), it is possible to construct time-varying measures of household membership of specific kin, i.e. mother, sibling or grandparent. The results illustrated in this research note are a taste of what can be achieved by following the training manual in the supplementary material.