The 2005 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (2005 EDHS) is part of the worldwide MEASURE DHS project which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The principal objective of the 2005 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) is to provide current and reliable data on fertility and family planning behaviour, child mortality, adult and maternal mortality, children’s nutritional status, the utilization of maternal and child health services, knowledge of HIV/AIDS and prevalence of HIV/AIDS and anaemia. The specific objectives are to: collect data at the national level which will allow the calculation of key demographic rates; analyze the direct and indirect factors which determine the level and trends of fertility; measure the level of contraceptive knowledge and practice of women and men by method, urban-rural residence, and region; collect high quality data on family health including immunization coverage among children, prevalence and treatment of diarrhoea and other diseases among children under five, and maternity care indicators including antenatal visits and assistance at delivery; collect data on infant and child mortality and maternal and adult mortality; obtain data on child feeding practices including breastfeeding and collect anthropometric measures to use in assessing the nutritional status of women and children; collect data on knowledge and attitudes of women and men about sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS and evaluate patterns of recent behaviour regarding condom use; conduct haemoglobin testing on women age 15-49 and children under age five years in a subsample of the households selected for the survey to provide information on the prevalence of anaemia among women in the reproductive ages and young children; collect samples for anonymous HIV testing from women and men in the reproductive ages to provide information on the prevalence of HIV among the adult population. This information is essential for informed policy decisions, planning, monitoring, and evaluation of programs on health in general and reproductive health in particular at both the national and regional levels. A long-term objective of the survey is to strengthen the technical capacity of the Central Statistical Agency to plan, conduct, process, and analyse data from complex national population and health surveys. Moreover, the 2005 Ethiopia DHS provides national and regional estimates on population and health that are comparable to data collected in similar surveys in other developing countries. The first ever Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) in Ethiopia was conducted in the year 2000 as part of the worldwide DHS programme. Data from the 2005 Ethiopia DHS survey, the second such survey, add to the vast and growing international database on demographic and health variables. Wherever possible, the 2005 EDHS data is compared with data from the 2000 EDHS. In addition, where applicable, the 2005 EDHS is compared with the 1990 NFFS, which also sampled women age 15-49. Husbands of currently married women were also covered in this survey. However, for security and other reasons, the NFFS excluded from its coverage Eritrea, Tigray, Asseb, and Ogaden autonomous regions. In addition, fieldwork could not be carried out for Northern Gondar, Southern Gondar, Northern Wello, and Southern Wello due to security reasons. Thus, any comparison between the EDHS and the NFFS has to be interpreted with caution.
