The Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS), which is part of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Project, is one of prominent national surveys in the field of population, family planning, and health. The survey is not only important nationally for planning and evaluating population, family planning, and health developments, but is also important internationally since IDHS has been designed so uniquely that it can be compared with similar surveys in other developing countries. The 1997 Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) is a follow-on project to the 1987 National Indonesia Contraceptive Prevalence Survey (NICPS), the 1991 IDHS, and the 1994 IDHS. The 1997 IDHS was expanded from the 1994 survey to include a module on family welfare; however, unlike the 1994 survey, the 1997 survey no longer investigated the availability of family planning and health services. The 1997 IDHS also included as part of the household schedule a household expenditure module that provided a means of identifying the household's economic status. The 1997 IDHS was specifically designed to meet the following objectives: Provide data concerning fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, maternal mortality, and awareness of AIDS that can be used by program managers, policymakers, and researchers to evaluate and improve existing programs Provide data about availability of family planning and health services, thereby offering an opportunity for linking women's fertility, family planning, and child care behavior with the availability of services Provide household expenditure data that which can be used to identify the household's economic status Provide data that can be used to analyze trends over time by examining many of the same fertility, mortality, and health issues that were addressed in the earlier surveys (1987 NICPS, 1991 IDHS and 1994 IDHS) Measure changes in fertility and contraceptive prevalence rates and at the same time study factors that affect the changes, such as marriage patterns, urban/rural residence, education, breastfeeding habits, and the availability of contraception Measure the development and achievements of programs related to health policy, particularly those concerning the maternal and child health development program implemented through public health clinics in Indonesia Provide indicators for classifying families according to their welfare status.
