# **4.  Data sets under review**

To the best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive database of household surveys and their disability questions. We searched for household surveys and censuses conducted in low- and middle-income countries between 2009 and 2018. Surveys prior to 2009 would be unlikely to have internationally comparable disability questions as much of the work to develop internationally-comparable disability questions started in the 2000s. Some of the data sets post 2018 were not yet available at the time this research study was conducted. The period under consideration is 2009 to 2018.

The surveys and censuses were retrieved from the online International Household Survey Network Microdata catalog, the World Bank Microdata Library catalog, the International Labor Organization survey catalog, the repository of census questionnaires maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division, and the websites of individual National Statistical Offices. Additional surveys were sourced from the World Bank.

Our data consist of the questionnaires from household surveys and censuses in LMICs between 2009 and 2018. The list of surveys under review includes some of the major international surveys: Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), the Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC), Global FINDEX, and the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). The Global FINDEX survey is standardized across countries, hence only the global questionnaire was reviewed for each year. The analysis is restricted to data available from surveys that may be used in monitoring general outcomes among adults with disabilities and their household. It also includes national surveys, general ones, as well as topical surveys such as health, disability, labor force surveys, or surveys focused on water/sanitation, or transition to adulthood. DHS is a major global health data set and in 2014, the DHS program developed a disability data collection optional module based on the WGSS. Some countries have changed questions in the module (Casebolt 2020).

The resulting pool included 734 data sets and 1,297 data set-years and censuses from 133 countries in East Asia/Pacific (22 countries), Europe & Central Asia (23 countries), Latin America & Caribbean (24 countries), Middle East and North Africa (12 countries), South Asia (8 countries), and Sub-Saharan Africa (44 countries).<sup>2</sup> Each of the 1,297 data set-years was screened for disability questions. The full list is in Appendix 1. We conducted a systematic assessment of the survey questionnaires to figure out which ones included any of the disability questions described in Section 1. Each questionnaire was searched looking for several disability-related words noted below in italics: _disability, impairment ( blind, deaf, dumb, mental, physical), limited in usual activit_ (y/ies _), limited in the amount of work or type of work or activities related to work_ , ADLs ( _walking, dressing, bathing, eating, walking, toileting, urination and defecations) and questions related to limitations in IADLs (housework, shopping, cooking, managing money, and taking medicine, phone_ ), _difficulty in seeing, hearing, walking, concentrating, self-care, communicating_ .

> 2 The data sets that were reviewed are listed in this document.

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