Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT) Series

Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) is a longitudinal study in Balaka, Malwai designed to examine how young people navigate reproduction in an AIDS epidemic. Tsogolo la Thanzi means "Healthy Futures" in Chichewa, which is Malawi's most widely spoken language.

The 2019 Household Listing Data are the result of a new census of the original catchment area, 10 years after the initial study began. These data are supplemental to the main TLT series, providing insights into how the Balaka area developed over the past 10 years. It includes data from all persons living within 7 kilometers of the TLT research center.

Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT) is a decade-long population-based cohort study of young women and men from Balaka, Malawi. Tsogolo La Thanzi means "Health Futures" in Chichewa, Malawi's most widely spoken language. TLT has followed young adults (ages 15-25 at enrollment, 15-35 inclusive) as they navigate relationships and childbearing within the context of a generalized AIDS epidemic. TLT enrolled more than 3000 individuals and collected 11 waves of data, covering a 10-year period (2009-2019) that spans massive changes in the HIV treatment context in Malawi as well as the ages of peak incidence and peak fertility for female respondents.

This particular study contains the data collected from an additional survey referred to as Tsogolo La Thanzi 3 (TLT-3), fielded in 2019, following the release of ten waves of data collected between 2009 and 2015. Unlike the past where the sample included male partners, this third round of data collection focused solely on women.

TLT-3 covered many of the same topics found in the original TLT multi-wave project such as: relationships, religion, HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, marriage, sexually transmitted diseases, and future expectations.

Additionally, modules specific to TLT-3 included: kinship, mental health, and trust in clinics. These data can be used cross-sectionally or can be merged with previous waves to facilitate analyses of a full ten years of social change in Balaka township and across the life course.

Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) is a longitudinal study in Balaka, Malawi designed to examine how young people navigate reproduction in an AIDS epidemic. Tsogolo la Thanzi means "Healthy Futures" in Chichewa, Malawi's most widely spoken language. New data are being collected to develop better understandings of the reproductive goals and behavior of young adults in Malawi -- the first cohort to never have experienced life without AIDS. To understand these patterns of family formation in a rapidly changing setting, TLT used the following approach: an intensive longitudinal design where respondents are interviewed every fourth months at TLT's centralized research center. Data collection began in May of 2009 and was completed in June of 2012. To assess changes on a longer time-horizon, a follow-up survey referred to as Tsogolo la Thanzi 2 (TLT-2) was fielded between June and August of 2015.

The Couples Data include supplementary data intended to link partners across the full TLT-1 and TLT-2 time period for the purpose of conducting couple-level analyses.