Interviewer instructions
Record the age of all the members of the household in this column in complete years as at last birthday. Ages of infants who are less than 1 year old should be recorded as 0. Do not record ages in months.
Some household heads have difficulty remembering the ages of all of the members of the household - in some cases even their own ages. Allow the respondent to consult with other members of the household, or suggest for young children that they might look at their clinic cards.
It may also be possible to determine age by referring to some historical events that the respondent may remember. E.g. you could ask how old the respondent was when The Gambia became a Republic.
If you have already ascertained the age of some other member of the household this may be of considerable help in determining the ages of other members. For example if you have established that the eldest son of the head of the household is 12 years old, you may be able to determine the ages of the other children by finding out how many years elapsed between the births of the different children, or establishing how old one child was when another was born. In case you are only given the year of birth, and not the month, even after probing, calculate the age by subtracting the year of birth from the current year. eg if the person was born in 1960 and this is 2002 the person is 2002 - 1960 = 42 years old.
