The Policy and Science for Health, Agriculture and Nutrition (PoSHAN) Seasonal Survey Datasets 2013-2015

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Nutrition, with funding from the USAID, conducted a series of four annual surveys – The Policy and Science for Health, Agriculture and Nutrition (PoSHAN) Surveys – in Nepal from 2013-2015. The aim of the surveys was to assess nutritional status, diet and morbidity of preschool aged children and their mothers, and recently married, nulliparous women, and household food security, agricultural practices, participation in services and programs, among other factors, and examine associations between agricultural practices and food security, nutritional status, diet and health. The broader goal was guide policy and program interventions that may influence household food security, poverty, and the diets, health and nutrition of pre-school children and their mothers. The PoSHAN surveys were conducted in 21 sub-district units (Village Development Committees, VDCs), in 21 districts, 7 each across the Mountains, Hills and Terai (plains), sampled systematically following a random start. Within each VDC, 3 of 9 wards were systematically sampled, proportional to population size, for a total of 63 wards in the full sample. The PoSHAN surveys were conducted in the same season (~June-August) and wards every year. In addition, 1 VDC, representing an average of the 7 VDCs per zone was surveyed in two additional seasons al (sentinel) surveys to provide year-round agricultural, food security, dietary, nutritional status and other data. The first three were nationally representative (2013, 2014 and 2016) and one was conducted only in the Terai (2015) due to the 2015 Nepal earthquake which mainly affected the Hills and Mountains. This collection contains the cross-sectional dataset for the seasonal surveys conducted from 2013 through 2015. For more information visit:https://doi.org/10.12691/jfs-6-2-5. (Link to Annual Surveys.) Data files are formatted for STATA, and include MS Excel and CSV formats. Data specificity is limited to the regional district level to maintain participants' anonymity for public access. Restricted access to data at the VDC level may be requested by contacting the study team. Additional content details are available in the file set Metadata folder.