The 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) is part of the worldwide Demographic and Health Surveys program, which is designed to collect data on fertility, family planning, and maternal and child health. The BDHS is a nationally representative sample survey designed to provide information on basic national indicators of social progress including fertility, childhood mortality, contraceptive knowledge and use, maternal and child health, nutritional status of mothers and children, awareness of AIDS, and domestic violence. This periodic survey is conducted every three to four years to serve as a source of population and health data for policymakers, program managers, and the research community. In general, the aims of the BDHS are to: Provide information to meet the monitoring and evaluation needs of health and family planning programs, and Provide program managers and policy makers involved in these programs with the information they need to plan and implement future interventions. More specifically, the objectives of the survey are to provide up-to-date information on fertility and childhood mortality levels; nuptiality; fertility preferences; awareness, approval, and use of family planning methods; breastfeeding practices; nutrition levels; maternal and child health; awareness of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases; knowledge of tuberculosis; and domestic violence. Although improvements and additions have been made to each successive survey, the basic structure and design of the BDHS has been maintained over time in order to measure trends in health and family planning indicators. The 2007 BDHS survey was conducted under the authority of the National Institute for Population Research and Training (NIPORT) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The survey was implemented by Mitra and Associates, a Bangladeshi research firm located in Dhaka. Macro International Inc., a private research firm located in Calverton, Maryland, USA, provided technical assistance to the survey as part of its international Demographic and Health Surveys program. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Bangladesh provided financial assistance.
