Household structure changes over time and changes are normally updated during regular update rounds.  Standard forms such as the Household Record Book in the HRS system and other forms are used to capture these changes.

The head of house here refers to the one who every body in the household recognized as the head. He/she is mostly the major provider in the household. In his/her absence, the person who takes charge of the household is considered “temporary head”.  All relationships are defined with reference to the head or temporary head. Headship of household may change due to death, marriage, change in household structure etc.

Every person added during update rounds to a household must be related to the Head of the household as Wife, Husband, Child, Parent, Grand Parent, Brother, Sister, In-law, Cousin, Friend, Unknown, etc.

As an introduction to marital status change, it is important to appreciate that nuptiality is defined as the frequency, characteristic and dissolution of marriages in a population. Nuptiality is determined by using data on marriage. Marriage is an important phenomenon for DSS to measure because it is associated with the process of reproduction. Definition of marriages might differ from one society or site to another. The best approach is to use the most common practice of the society in which your DSS operates. For example, Rufiji DSS defines a marriage as a union of persons of opposite sex as established by civil, religious or other means according to the customs of the society.

Marriage can be measured in two ways, as status of an individual at the time of baseline registration and as an event after initial registration. During baseline, each individual’s marital status in the household can be determined. The basic question is ‘what is the current marital status? The main options are:

Depending on details a site is interested with, more questions can be asked at this level.  However, where more details are required, it is advisable to use a Marriage Registration Form.  Once individuals’ marital status has been registered during baseline, any change should be registered as an event. The event could be classified as: married, living together/cohabiting, divorced, separated, reconciliation, or widowed. A Marital Status Change form is used for such events. The information collected in the form includes details of the wife, husband, type and date of event.

From time to time, sites may need to amend certain information which was collected at the time of initial enumeration or at any subsequent round of interviews. Therefore a Changes Form needs to be used to collect the correct information. All amendments should relate to original information which was misreported or mis- recorded previously. In the HRS system, amendments represent information appearing in the Household Registration Book (HRB) which must be corrected because of an error.  Both the HRB and the computer record must be corrected. The following errors should be amended with a changes form: sex, date of birth (remember all wrong date of birth information should be reported to the supervisor for verification before a changes form is completed).  A member whose marital status, employment or occupation has not changed over time but has incorrectly been recorded in the enumeration or subsequent rounds can also be changed if one knows the previous status from the HRB.