Ibrahim Muhammad, Farman Nayab, Rehman Habib Ur, Abdullah Mujahid, Cheema Amna Mahnoor, Aamir Maira, Ahmed Azadeh, Khan Ayesha, Khan Adnan Ahmad
Research and Development Solutions, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Akhter Hameed Khan Foundation, Islamabad, Pakistan.
PLoS One. 2025 Mar 25;20(3):e0320044. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0320044. eCollection 2025.
Effective policymaking relies on high-quality data to understand social contexts, identify target populations, and evaluate interventions. In low and middle-income countries (LMICs), household surveys often fill data gaps, providing insights into social dynamics and policy impacts. In Pakistan, the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (PDHS) and Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) are crucial sources of information. While both surveys cover health and socioeconomic indicators, their methodologies and questionnaires vary, leading to potential discrepancies in data.
This paper compares PDHS 2017-18, PSLM 2018-19 (provincial level) and PSLM 2019-20 (district level) using family planning and child immunization modules as examples. Similar indicators under each section are examined for differences using weighted proportion t-test. For family planning, we analyzed PDHS 2017-18 and PSLM 2018-19 because PSLM 2019-20, doesn't have family planning section. For immunization, we analyzed PDHS 2017-18, PSLM 2018-19 and PSLM 2019-20.
Analysis reveals high concordance in family planning indicators with differences of within two percent. Differences in the rates of BCG which is given at birth are under one percent and for the first dose of pentavalent vaccine are near one percent. However, the differences start diverging thereafter and are near nine percent for dose 3 of the pentavalent vaccine. There is high level of concordance between the results of the provincial and district PSLM surveys conducted one year apart.
We describe the differences and relative similarities of the PSLM and PDHS surveys, as means to better incorporate their evidence in policy decisions. Both PSLM and PDHS serve a slightly different niche in that PDHS provides more in depth understanding of family planning whereas PSLM connects many health and social indicators with economic measures and gives granularity at the district level. However, to enhance the confidence of policymakers in both the surveys, we describe their concordance and differences and how they may be used in policy decisions.
有效的政策制定依赖高质量数据来理解社会背景、确定目标人群并评估干预措施。在低收入和中等收入国家（LMICs），家庭调查常常填补数据空白，提供对社会动态和政策影响的洞察。在巴基斯坦，巴基斯坦人口与健康调查（PDHS）和巴基斯坦社会与生活水平测量（PSLM）是关键信息来源。虽然这两项调查都涵盖健康和社会经济指标，但它们的方法和问卷各不相同，导致数据可能存在差异。
本文以计划生育和儿童免疫模块为例，比较了2017 - 18年的PDHS、2018 - 19年（省级层面）和2019 - 20年（地区层面）的PSLM。使用加权比例t检验检查各部分下类似指标的差异。对于计划生育，我们分析了2017 - 18年的PDHS和2018 - 19年的PSLM，因为2019 - 20年的PSLM没有计划生育部分。对于免疫接种，我们分析了2017 - 18年的PDHS、2018 - 19年的PSLM和2019 - 20年的PSLM。
分析显示计划生育指标的一致性很高，差异在两个百分点以内。出生时接种的卡介苗（BCG）接种率差异在一个百分点以内，五价疫苗第一剂接种率差异接近一个百分点。然而，此后差异开始扩大，五价疫苗第三剂接种率差异接近九个百分点。相隔一年进行的省级和地区级PSLM调查结果之间具有高度一致性。
我们描述了PSLM和PDHS调查的差异和相对相似之处，作为更好地将其证据纳入政策决策的手段。PSLM和PDHS都有略微不同的定位，PDHS能更深入地理解计划生育，而PSLM将许多健康和社会指标与经济措施联系起来，并在地区层面提供详细信息。然而，为了增强政策制定者对这两项调查的信心，我们描述了它们的一致性和差异以及如何在政策决策中使用它们。
