DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37190.v1
title: Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT): Migration Autopsy Data, Malawi, 2009-2012 [Healthy Futures]
title: Version 1

description: The Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT): Migration Autopsy collection contains data collected as part of the Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) Study. TLT is a longitudinal study in Balaka, Malawi designed to examine how young people navigate reproduction in an AIDS epidemic. Tsogolo la Thanzi means "Healthy Futures" in Chichewa, Malawi's most widely spoken language. New data is being collected to develop better understandings of the reproductive goals and behavior of young adults in Malawi -- the first cohort to never have experienced life without AIDS. To understand these patterns of family formation in a rapidly changing setting, TLT used the following approach: an intensive longitudinal design where respondents are interviewed every fourth months at TLT's centralized research center.
The Migration Autopsy collection contains many TLT respondents whom moved away during the study period. In order to both carefully track attrition and gather valuable information about migration, TLT performed a migration autopsy on study participants who migrated from the study area during the course of the 8-wave observation period. Data collection began in April of 2009 and was completed in December of 2012. To assess changes on a longer time-horizon, a follow-up survey we refer to as Tsogolo la Thanzi 2 (TLT-2) was fielded between June and August of 2016.
description: In order to both carefully track attrition and gather information about migration, the Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT) performed a migration autopsy on study participants who migrated from the study area during the course of the 8-wave observation period (2009-2011).
description: The Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT) is an ongoing longitudinal study of young Malawians living within 7-kilometer radius of Balaka. After being drawn into the sample, respondents were sorted by location in the sampling area and randomly assigned to a primary interviewer, matched by gender. Each TLT interviewer was responsible for recruiting and interviewing their roster of approximately 100 respondents.When enrolled respondents could not participate in a survey wave due to possible migration, interviewers would begin the process of locating informants who could report on key aspects of the respondent's whereabouts, including: timing of migration, reasons for migration, and destination. This relatively short survey took approximately 15 minutes to complete.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
					disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
					statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
					these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
					Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Response Rates:
					95 percent of recruited respondents completed interviews at baseline.
description: Datasets:
					
						DS1: Dataset
description: Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT) Series
description: face-to-face interview
description: Informants who were either related to or had previously lived with or nearby previous Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT) respondents who migrated from the study area.
						Smallest Geographic Unit: None
description: Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) placed considerable emphasis on drawing a genuinely representative and random sample of respondents. Researchers conducted a complete household census of all households in census enumeration areas where at least half of the area was within 7 kilometers of the Balaka town. TLT selected residents who usually reside in a given household. At the time of recruitment, respondents were considered ineligible if they were outside of the age range, were permanent migrants, or were deceased. Respondents were considered non-responders if they refused to participate in the study, were not found after three attempts to locate them, did not show up to their scheduled interview or to the second attempt to reschedule, or were deemed unable to participate because of language or severe mental disability.
In the respondent's absence, migration autopsies were
completed by informants who were either related to the respondent or had previously lived with or nearby. Occasionally, when relatives and neighbors were unavailable, the migration autopsy was completed by less intimate individuals who knew the respondent and could speak about the reasons for the migration and the likely destination. A total of 675 migration autopsies were administered regarding 602 respondents. For 20 percent of women (n=306) who were enrolled at baseline, the TLT collected at least one migration autopsy during the study period, totaling 352 migration autopsies. Twenty-four percent of random men (n=139) and 16 percent of partners (n=157) who participated in the study at any wave had at least one migration autopsy report associated with their TLT records.