The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) are the most important source of comparative information on the health of women and young children in low- and middle-income countries and are well-suited for studies of the relationship between environmental factors and health. However, barriers have limited the use of the DHS for these purposes. IPUMS DHS, an online data dissemination tool, overcomes these barriers, simplifying comparative analyses with DHS. IPUMS DHS recently incorporated environmental variables that can easily be attached to individual or household records, facilitating the use of DHS data for the study of population and environment issues. We provide a brief introduction to IPUMS DHS, describe the current and anticipated environmental variables and how to use them, and provide an example of the novel research possibilities facilitated by this latest IPUMS DHS development. IPUMS-DHS is available free online at dhs.ipums.org .

中文翻译：

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IPUMS DHS 中的背景数据：与人口和健康调查相关的物理和社会环境变量

人口与健康调查 (DHS) 是中低收入国家妇女和幼儿健康比较信息的最重要来源，非常适合研究环境因素与健康之间的关系。然而，障碍限制了 DHS 用于这些目的。IPUMS DHS 是一种在线数据传播工具，克服了这些障碍，简化了与 DHS 的比较分析。IPUMS DHS 最近纳入了可以轻松附加到个人或家庭记录的环境变量，促进 DHS 数据用于研究人口和环境问题。我们简要介绍了 IPUMS DHS，描述了当前和预期的环境变量以及如何使用它们，并提供一个示例，说明最新的 IPUMS DHS 开发促进了新的研究可能性。IPUMS-DHS 可在 dhs.ipums.org 上免费在线获取。