Cycle 2 and beyond: Preparing and storing longitudinal data of the National Population Health Survey

The National Population Health Survey (NPHS) is a family of surveys with multiple objectives, one of which is to provide information on a panel of people who will be followed over time to reflect the dynamic process of health and illness. Data for the first cycle of the NPHS - Households Survey were collected from June 1994 to June 1995, and were released in September 1995. Data for the second cycle were collected from June 1996 to August 1997. One of the primary outputs for the second cycle is a longitudinal master file. This paper will describe six major strategies that were developed to process the longitudinal master file.