Findings of Nutrition Survey Done in two Strata of Taiz Lowland, March- April 2019
The survey done in the same season of the survey done in 2014 which is not the peak season for acute malnutrition in Taiz lowland. However, the levels of acute malnutrition in the current survey are close to those found by survey done in November 2018.
The methodology
SMART methodology has been used in implementation of the survey.
The whole lowland areas as shown in the map was divided into two strata to increase the chance of villages and to be part of the sample.
The two strata are:
The Northern Lowland Districts: Includes districts of Al-Makha and Maqbana.
The Southern Lowland Districts: Includes districts of Mawza’, AlWazi’iyah, and Dhubab.
However, during the final preparation of the frames, it was that access the Maqbana from the south is impossible and needs log time for arrangement with the GHO in the north, then it was decided to restrict the first stratum to Al-Makha. This decision was made considering the urgency to clarify the expected severe situation in Al-Makha knowing that situation Maqbana is much better that other lowland districts.
The survey does not include mortality, therefor, the c sample size calculation was made considering anthropometry parameters only. The sample size calculated was 535 households 543 households. The agreed cluster size was 15 households which are the number of households that one team can completed comfortably in one day. Considering this, the total number of clusters in each stratum was calculated as 36 clusters which at the end can give 540 households in each stratum. The survey aims to reach 503 children aged 6 to 59 months and another 11% more of children aged less than 6 months in each stratum.
Sample size calculation and selection of clusters were made using ENA for SMART 2011 (July 2015 version).
The segmentation (when needed) and the selection of households at the cluster level is made as explained in the survey protocol that approved earlier by the technical committee.
Data collection was made by 6 teams. Each team contains 2 female enumerators and one male team head. the survey implementation was also supported by 2 field supervisors to assist the survey manager, one logistic officer, and four data entry and management staff. All these members have been trained one week before the data collection process.