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Article History

Received: 15 July 2020

Accepted: 17 August 2021

First Online: 26 August 2021

Declarations

:

: The DHS Program reports common ethical procedures for all the 21 countries. Ethical approval for the DHS are obtained from the ethics committee of ORC Macro Inc. and collaborating institutions of the survey countries, usually the ministries of health of the respective countries. Additionally, the Inner-City Fund (ICF) International maintains that the procedures of DHS do not contradict the regulations for the respect of human subjects as required by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Since the data sets are publicly available, no additional ethical requirements were needed for this study. Detailed information about the ethical protocols can be accessed through .

: Not applicable.

: I declare that I have no competing interests.