Data Processing

After the fieldwork, the team supervisor checked the data collected during the interview for completeness. Then the Provincial Statistical Officer in each province and the Director of the Data Management Division of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration randomly rechecked the data before sending all the questionnaires to the National Statistical Office (NSO) for processing.

Upon receiving the questionnaires from the 76 provinces, the collected data were entered on 30 microcomputers by data entry operators and data entry supervisors at the Thai NSO, using CSPro software. In order to ensure quality control, editing and structural checks, all questionnaires were double entered for verification and internal consistency checks were performed, followed by secondary editing. The data entry and verification used CSPro programme applications that were developed under the global Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) project by UNICEF to be used as standard processing procedures worldwide. In Thailand, the standard CSPro programme was modified appropriately to the Thai version questionnaires. The modification was done by NSO staff that had been trained on data processing by MICS experts from UNICEF.

Data entry and data verification for the national level report began in February 2006 and was completed in April 2006. For the provincial reports, the process was completed in June 2006. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software programme, Version 14, and the model syntax and tabulation plans developed by UNICEF for this purpose.

Data editing took place at a number of stages throughout the processing, including:
a) Office editing and coding
b) During data entry
c) Structure checking and completeness
d) Secondary editing
e) Structural checking of SPSS data files

Data processing used the CSPro programme applications developed under the global Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey project by UNICEF.

Data were processed in clusters, with each cluster being processed as a complete unit through each stage of data processing.  Each cluster goes through the following steps:
1) Questionnaire reception
2) Office editing and coding
3) Data entry
4) Structure and completeness checking
5) Verification entry
6) Comparison of verification data
7) Back up of raw data
8) Secondary editing
9) Edited data back up
After all clusters are processed, all data is concatenated together and then the following steps are completed for all data files:
10) Export to SPSS in 4 files (hh - household, hl - household members, wm - women, ch - children under 5)
11) Recoding of variables needed for analysis
12) Adding of sample weights
13) Calculation of wealth quintiles and merging into data
14) Structural checking of SPSS files
15) Data quality tabulations
16) Production of analysis tabulations

For data entry, CSPro version 2.6.007 was used with a highly structured data entry program, using system controlled approach, that controlled entry of each variable.  All range checks and skips were controlled by the program and operators could not override these.  A limited set of consistency checks were also included inthe data entry program.  In addition, the calculation of anthropometric Z-scores was also included in the data entry programs for use during analysis.  Open-ended responses ("Other" answers) were not entered or coded, except in rare circumstances where the response matched an existing code in the questionnaire.  

Structure and completeness checking ensured that all questionnaires for the cluster had been entered, were structurally sound, and that women's and children's questionnaires existed for each eligible woman and child. 

100% verification of all variables was performed using independent verification, i.e. double entry of data, with separate comparison of data followed by modification of one or both datasets to correct keying errors by original operators who first keyed the files.

After completion of all processing in CSPro, all individual cluster files were backed up before concatenating data together using the CSPro file concatenate utility.