Example 2: National versus sub-national analyses

The NIPN may have the objective to use data from a MICS survey to study a particular region. A National Survey like a MICS has the primary objective to produce national figures. A study(1) concluded that “anthropometric data quality was highly variable both between and within survey sources and over time”. This is confirmed by interviews of experienced practitioners(2). Typically, data from a region with difficult access for logistic or security reasons can be of lower quality. The data quality of that region may be good enough to contribute to the production of a national figure but the NIPN may want to apply more stringent data quality criteria to study that region specifically.
References:

1. Corsi, D. J., J. M. Perkins and S. V. Subramanian (2017). Child anthropometry data quality from Demographic and Health Surveys, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, and National Nutrition Surveys in the West Central Africa region: are we comparing apples and oranges? Global Health Action 10(1): 1328185.
2. Interviews of 5 senior nutrition data analysts conducted by the GSF early 2019.