Analysis using SPSS 21

The main objective of this analysis is the test if the stunting prevalences reported in the RDHS
2005, 2010 and 2014-15 were statistically the same (similarity) or not (if there is any difference
between the proportions).

We chose to use two statistical tools to compare the results, SPSS 21 and R. First, we used the
SPSS 21 as follows:

1. Given that the three reports provided the population sizes of the surveyed children, we
entered all data in SPSS 21 after defining variables (see Table 1 and Table 2)
2. Using the Crosstabs command to compare the three column proportions.

Table 1: Definition of variables in SPSS 21

Table 2: Entering data in SPSS 21

The manipulations gave the following results:

Case Processing Summary

Cases
Valid Missing Total
N Percent N Percent N Percent
Stunted or not * Survey 12099 100.0% 0 0.0% 12099 100.0%
year

Stunted or not * Survey year Crosstabulation

Survey year Total
2005 2010 2014-15
Count 1968a 1917b 1476c 5361
Stunted % within Survey 51.0% 44.0% 38.0% 44.3%
Stunted or year
not Count 1891a 2439b 2408c 6738
Not stunted % within Survey 49.0% 56.0% 62.0% 55.7%
year
Count 3859 4356 3884 12099
Total % within Survey 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
year
Each subscript letter denotes a subset of Survey year categories whose column
proportions do not differ significantly from each other at the .05 level.

The above results show that there is a statistically significant difference between the three
columns, given that the subscript letters in the column proportions are different (a, b, and c).
Analysis using R

After using SPSS in the above analysis, given that the analysis simply tells that proportions are
significantly different, we tried a similar analysis by using the R software. To compare the three
proportions in R, we have to know the sample sizes of the children populations surveyed as
reported in RDHS 2005, 2010 and 2014-15, to calculate the proportions as follows:

Year of
RDHS Children Stunting Non-Stunted Number of Number of
survey surveyed proportion proportion stunted non-stunted
2005 3,859 51% 49% 1968 1891
2010 4,356 44% 56% 1917 2439
2014-15 3,884 38% 62% 1476 2408

In the above table, 51% = 1968/ 3859; 44% = 1917 / 4356 and 38% = 1476 / 3884.

We have to use both the two commands prop.test and pairwise.prop.test to test for differences in
proportions using R as follows:
1. prop.test(x = c( 1968 , 1917 , 1476 ), n = c( 3859 , 4356 , 3884 ))
2. pairwise.prop.test(x = c( 1968 , 1917 , 1476 ), n = c( 3859 , 4356 , 3884 ))

The first command tests if all three proportions are the same and we have to look at the p-value
for conclusion. If the p-value is less than 0.05, the conclusion is that the proportions are
statistically different.
Regarding the p-value which is less than 0.05, we reject the null hypothesis of similarity and we
conclude that there is significant difference between the three proportions.

The second command was used to test if there is any difference between the proportions, two by
two, based on the p-values; this means comparing the three proportions 51%, 44% and 38% by
comparing 51% to 44%, 51% to 38%, and 44% to 38%.

Before the computing procedures, we had to conduct a hypothesis test for any differences
between these proportions. The null hypothesis would be no difference between the proportions
versus some difference. If we reject the null hypothesis, we have evidence that there is some
statistically significant differences, and we have to know where the differences occur. Using the
pairwise comparisons of proportions, where we make multiple comparisons, the outcome of
these pairwise comparisons will tell us which RDHS surveys have significantly different
proportions of stunted children under five years.

The output of the computing procedures was the following:

Conceptual framework