Effects of short birth spacing on birth order differences in child stunting: Evidence from India

All data used in this study are publicly available from “The Demographic Health Survey Program's” data distribution system. The analysis uses the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS 2015–16). The NFHS data provide a nationally representative sample on the health and demography of the Indian population. The survey structure corresponds to the typical structure of demographic and health surveys conducted in several other countries; hence, the analysis can easily be replicated by other countries. The survey collects separate rural and urban samples for each district in a state, using a two-stage stratified random sampling design and relevant sampling weights to select households. At the first stage, the primary sampling units (PSU), which are a village in rural areas and a census enumeration block in urban areas, were selected using probability proportional to size, and 22 households were then randomly sampled from each PSU. All women in the age group of 15–49 years in the households from selected PSUs were interviewed, and height and weight biomarkers were collected for each one of them, as well as for their children under 5 years. We use the data files at the household, women, and child level.