Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT) is a decade-long population-based cohort study of young women and men from Balaka, Malawi. Tsogolo La Thanzi means "Health Futures" in Chichewa, Malawi's most widely spoken language. TLT has followed young adults (ages 15-25 at enrollment, 15-35 inclusive) as they navigate relationships and childbearing within the context of a generalized AIDS epidemic. TLT enrolled more than 3000 individuals and collected 11 waves of data, covering a 10-year period (2009-2019) that spans massive changes in the HIV treatment context in Malawi as well as the ages of peak incidence and peak fertility for female respondents.
This particular study contains the data collected from an additional survey referred to as Tsogolo La Thanzi 3 (TLT-3), fielded in 2019, following the release of ten waves of data collected between 2009 and 2015. Unlike the past where the sample included male partners, this third round of data collection focused solely on women.
TLT-3 covered many of the same topics found in the original TLT multi-wave project such as: relationships, religion, HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, marriage, sexually transmitted diseases, and future expectations.
Additionally, modules specific to TLT-3 included: kinship, mental health, and trust in clinics. These data can be used cross-sectionally or can be merged with previous waves to facilitate analyses of a full ten years of social change in Balaka township and across the life course. This third round of data collection was designed to follow-up with original Tsogolo La Thanzi 1 participants (enrolled in 2009 and 2012), and to refresh the sample by recruiting a new representative sample of women ages 21 to 35 from the same catchment area that defined the the original recruitment and enrollment effort. TLT-3 began in May and June in 2019 attempting to enumerate every household in the catchment area. That study, the TLT-3 2019 Household Listing Data (ICPSR 39855), was done to document changes in the size and composition of the Balaka community, and to draw the new representative sample of women for this third iteration of the series. The data file consists of 2,617 cases with 1,209 variables. Some of the major sections of the data file include:
About Respondent: Tribe belong to, languages spoken, residence history
Personality Inventory: Agreement on personality traits / characteristics
Shocks: Experiences of good and bad changes happening in life
Siblings: Characteristics of up to 20 siblings (gender, year of birth, if still alive, year of death, illness before death, number of children born to them, and number of children still alive)
Nieces / Nephews: Characteristics of up to 10 nieces and nephews (gender, year of birth, year of death, and illness before death)
Parents / Grandparents: Characteristics of parents and grandparents (still alive, year of death, illness before death, cause of death)
Children: Characteristics of up to 9 children (gender, age, father's involvement, details on birth, residence, health, schooling, and info on death)
Pregnancy: Details of up to 5 pregnancies (outcome and dates)
Fertility: Questions on family planning
Happiness: Questions on mental well-being
Health Perceptions: Advice for pregnant women
Romantic Partnerships: Details on up to 2 sexual relationships (when it began, partner's education and employment, their religion and finances, sexual practices and contraceptive use)
Marriage: Details on up to 6 marriages (when started and ended, location, reason for ending, and ankhoswe)
HIV / AIDS: Prevalence of HIV and AIDS in household and village, testing, disclosure of status, and use of ARVs
Health Services: Details of up to 6 clinic vicists (location, reasons for visit, date of visits, and partner accompaniment)
Economics: Employment, earnings and savings, characteristics of home, land ownership, items owned by self and household
Technology: Phone ownership, frequency and reasons for use
Religion: What religion belong to, reason for changing religion, religious activities in the past month, importance of religion in life, and funerals attended in the last month Response Rates: Response rates are broken out by when the respondent was enrolled in the study:
2009: 68.8 percent (1,022 / 1,486)
2012: 67.6 percent (213 / 315)
2019: 96.1 percent (1,538 / 1,601)
Please note that of those numbers listed for 2019: 127 respondents were from 2009, and 29 respondents were from 2012. These comprise the 156 "twice-sampled respondents" mentioned previously. The 2019 household listing data was used to draw a new sample of 1,800 women between the ages of 21 to 35. Simple random sampling was used to recruit respondents for enrollment. From that sample of 1,800 women 1,601 women were eligible which resulted in 1,538 participants. It is of note that of these 1,538 there were 156 women who were enrolled between 2009 and 2012. These are called "twice sampled respondents" designated by the variable TWICESAMPLEDFLAG. Datasets:
DS1: Tsogolo La Thanzi 3 (TLT-3), Malawi, 2019 [Healthy Futures] All females living within 7 kilometers of the Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) research center in Balaka, Malawi. computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI)For further information please visit the Tsogolo la Thanzi website.The variable RESPID can be used to discern the year of enrollment in the TLT-3 study. Please see the "Sample" section of the available User Guide for further information. It can also be used for linking studies in the TLT series together.