THE GAZA STUDY: METHODOLOGY AND DATA
4.1 The survey
The most detailed plan of Gaza city available was a 1:2500 map produced by the Gaza Municipality at the end of the 1970s.10 Since the only way to obtain a reasonably accurate sampling frame was to pace the streets, it was decided to confine the survey to two areas of the city. These were ash-Shati refugee camp and one quarter of old Gaza, ash-Shaja„iyya. The latter was chosen at random from the four earliest inhabited neighbourhoods. The aim was to compare the experiences of indigenous Gazans with those of the refugee camp residents. The differences between ash-Shati and ash- Shaja„iyya are highlighted in Chapter 5.
The communities surveyed are not representative of the city‟s entire population. Specifically, the survey does not cover those refugees who have moved out of the camp as a result of force or financial incentives from the Israeli authorities, or those families from both ash-Shati and ash-Shaja„iyya who have moved to al-Rimal, the wealthiest neighbourhood in the town.
10 The official who provided the map requested that his name, department and the date of the map be withheld.
4.1.1 The sample
According to UNRWA, there were 38,424 registered refugees in ash-Shati camp at the end of June 1984 and 40,359 at the end of June 1985 (UNRWA, 1984 and UNRWA, 1985). However, since deaths are under-reported (Weller and Serow, 1986) and the registered population includes an unknown number of persons residing outside of the camp boundaries and abroad, the actual number of persons living in the camp was probably somewhere between 30,000 and 35,000 at the beginning of 1985.11 Estimates of the population of ash-Shaja„iyya are equally rough and figures of between 35,000 and 45,000 were quoted by Gaza Municipality officials and other informed individuals. The most precise figure obtained was from the statistics office in the Labour Force Department of the Gaza Civil Administration. An employee in this office said the population of ash-Shaja„iyya was 37,905 in mid-1986.12
In the absence of both reliable population estimates and sampling frames, it was decided to survey 500 dwellings in each community - roughly ten per cent of the total. Using a 1974 1:2500 UNRWA map of ash-Shati and the Gaza Municipality map, the two neighbourhoods were paced out and divided into clusters of approximately one hundred dwellings each. A random sample of five clusters was selected from each area. More detailed sketch maps were subsequently made of the selected clusters. A sixth cluster was chosen for ash-Shati when it became apparent that the average number of dwellings in the first five units was somewhat less than 100.
4.1.2 The questionnaires
Three sets of schedules were used to collect the data for the Gaza study. The questionnaires are presented in Appendix C. Most of the questions included in the household and individual woman‟s questionnaires were modelled on those contained in the World Fertility Survey household and individual schedules (see, for example, Jordan,
11 At the beginning of 1989, for example, UNRWA records show there were 43,086 registered refugees in ash-Shati camp but an UNRWA official estimated that there were only 36,000 persons living in the camp (al-Madani, 1989, pp.37-38).
12 The CBS Labour Force Survey of Gaza is conducted from this department. The Palestinian who provided the information asked not to be identified. He reported that there were 2642 households in Turkaman and 2773 in Jadaida, the two sub-quarters of ash-Shaja'iyya. His figure for the number of inhabitants assumes an average of seven persons per household. The published estimate of the number of persons per household in the Gaza Strip in 1986 is 6.45 (Israel, CBS, 1987, SAI, p.714).
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DS, 1979a). The questions about the use of contraception and those included on the schedule for children born in the three years prior to the survey, are modifications of questions asked in a 1981 study of three Palestinian villages (Giacaman, 1988).
The definition of household used in the survey was „those persons who live in one dwelling unit and cook and eat together‟. Information about housing conditions and basic amenities, together with data on place of origin, age, sex, marital status, education and income, was collected in the household schedule. Questions on residence („usually resides here‟ and „slept here last night‟) were included to permit the enumeration of both the de facto and the de jure populations. The de jure population is used for the denominators of all demographic measures. It is defined as all persons who live at the address for at least six months of the year, students studying in the West Bank or Israel and individuals who work and sleep in Israel or the West Bank but return to Gaza at the weekend. The household questionnaire was completed by the household head or, if he/she was not present, by another responsible family member. For every ever-married woman aged 10- 50 this respondent was asked to report the number of sons and daughters who were born alive, the number who had since died, and the date of the last live birth (and if dead, age at death).
A maternity history was collected from every ever-married woman aged 10-50 enumerated in each household. For each pregnancy, from the first to the most recent, questions were asked about date of termination of pregnancy and the outcome. For each live birth the sex of the child was ascertained. If the child died, the age at death was determined. Ages at death were recorded in days and weeks up to one month, in months up to 24 months, and in complete years thereafter. Questions on infant feeding and contraceptive use were also included on the individual woman‟s questionnaire.
The third schedule, the child questionnaire, was completed for every live birth, which occurred within 36 months of the interview. Mothers were asked to provide information about antenatal and postnatal care, including vaccinations. They were also asked a series of questions designed to establish whether the child had suffered from diarrhoea during the two weeks preceding the survey and what action was taken.
4.1.3 Training of interviewers
The original plan was to engage an equal number of male and female interviewers to work in mixed pairs. It was intended that the men would complete the household questionnaires while the women were interviewing the mothers. However, the researcher
was advised that it is socially unacceptable for Gazan women to be seen alone with a man who is neither her brother nor her husband. It was decided that an all-female team was preferable to an all-male team. Ten women, all of whom had received some post- secondary education, were recruited.
A five-day training programme was held during which the researcher and a member of Birzeit University Community Health Unit with experience of conducting health interviews in the West Bank explained the aims of the survey and interviewing techniques. The importance of obtaining accurate age and date data was emphasised. An „Event Calendar‟, similar to the chronology presented in Table 1.2, was provided to help the interviewers and interviewees to locate vital events.
4.1.4 Pilot survey
The interviewers spent two afternoons of the training period using the draft questionnaires to conduct interviews in non-sample households. On these schedules, the upper age limit for fertility questions was 49. This pilot phase revealed substantial heaping of women‟s ages on exact age 50 although it was not obvious that the interviewers were deliberately rounding the ages of women up to age 50 in order to reduce the number of women eligible for the individual questionnaire. Nevertheless, the age range for individual questionnaires was extended to 50 in an attempt to reduce the bias resulting from any such tendency. Data collected from women aged 50 were subsequently discarded. A modification was also made to the phrasing of the questions on contraception. Two other problems became apparent during the testing of the questionnaires. First, there was some confusion between infants who died within a few hours of birth and stillbirths. The interviewers were therefore instructed to ensure that all infants who died within 24 hours of birth had shown signs of life such as crying or movement. Secondly, the pilot survey confirmed that residents in ash-Shati and ash-Shaja„iyya, like other Palestinians, tend to report their age as the nth year of life entered, that is Western/demographers‟ age plus one. For this reason, the interviewers were told to ask respondents (or their proxies) for their age last birthday.
4.1.5 Fielding the survey
All the interviews were conducted between April and June 1985 (see Table 4.1). The daily discussion of the interviewers‟ observations and suggestions resulted in the preparation of two supplementary calendars. One chart indicated the month during which the religious fast Ramadan occurred in each calendar year, the second listed the seasonal
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Table 4.1 Fieldwork timetable
March – 15 April Mapping of ash-Shati and ash-Shaja„iyya, recruitment of interviewers 15-19 April Training of interviewers, pilot survey
20-21 April Printing of questionnaires 22 April – 18 May Survey of ash-Shati 20 May – 13 June Survey of ash-Shaja„iyya
availability of vegetables and fruits. Another useful observation shared by one of the interviewers was that, because of their interest in the astrological „star‟ sign of their siblings and parents, teenage girls were often able to provide dates of birth for many family members.
The researcher checked through every completed questionnaire at the end of each day. When necessary, interviewers were required to return to households to clarify inconsistencies in the collected data. The researcher accompanied the interviewers to the field each day to direct them to the eligible households and deal with any problems, which they encountered. The fieldwork proceeded smoothly and only one woman refused to be interviewed. The greatest difficulties encountered were explaining to women in non- sampled households why we were not visiting them and the upsetting effects on the interviewers‟ stomachs of drinking tea, coffee and/or carbonated drinks in every home which they entered.
4.1.6 Data processing
The information collected was transferred to coding sheets. Data entry was commenced at Birzeit University and completed at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The following statistical packages were used at different stages of the data editing and analysis: SIR, SPSS, GLIM and Excel.