Tsogolo La Thanzi 3 (TLT-3), Malawi, 2019 [Healthy Futures] (ICPSR 39882)

Version Date: Aug 6, 2026

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Principal Investigator(s):
Emily Smith-Greenaway, University of Southern California; Abdallah Chilungo, Tsogolo La Thanzi Centre; Jenny Ann Trinitapoli, University of Chicago

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39882.v1

Version V1

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Alternate Title

TLT-3 2019

Summary

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.

Citation

Smith-Greenaway, Emily, Chilungo, Abdallah, and Trinitapoli, Jenny Ann. Tsogolo La Thanzi 3 (TLT-3), Malawi, 2019 [Healthy Futures]. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2026-08-06. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39882.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03HD114550)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Restrictions

This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is strictly prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, this data collection is restricted from general dissemination. To obtain this file, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use agreement in accordance with existing ICPSR servicing policies.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2019

Date of Collection

2019-08-02 -- 2019-11-22

Data Collection Notes

  1. For further information please visit the Tsogolo la Thanzi website.
  2. The variable RESPID can be used to discern the year of enrollment in the TLT-3 study. Please see the "Sample" section of the available User Guide for further information. It can also be used for linking studies in the TLT series together.
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Study Purpose

This third round of data collection was designed to follow-up with original Tsogolo La Thanzi 1 participants (enrolled in 2009 and 2012), and to refresh the sample by recruiting a new representative sample of women ages 21 to 35 from the same catchment area that defined the the original recruitment and enrollment effort.

Study Design

TLT-3 began in May and June in 2019 attempting to enumerate every household in the catchment area. That study, the TLT-3 2019 Household Listing Data (ICPSR 39855), was done to document changes in the size and composition of the Balaka community, and to draw the new representative sample of women for this third iteration of the series.

Sample

The 2019 household listing data was used to draw a new sample of 1,800 women between the ages of 21 to 35. Simple random sampling was used to recruit respondents for enrollment. From that sample of 1,800 women 1,601 women were eligible which resulted in 1,538 participants. It is of note that of these 1,538 there were 156 women who were enrolled between 2009 and 2012. These are called "twice sampled respondents" designated by the variable TWICESAMPLEDFLAG.

Time Method

Longitudinal: Panel

Universe

All females living within 7 kilometers of the Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) research center in Balaka, Malawi.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

The data file consists of 2,617 cases with 1,209 variables. Some of the major sections of the data file include:

  • About Respondent: Tribe belong to, languages spoken, residence history
  • Personality Inventory: Agreement on personality traits / characteristics
  • Shocks: Experiences of good and bad changes happening in life
  • Siblings: Characteristics of up to 20 siblings (gender, year of birth, if still alive, year of death, illness before death, number of children born to them, and number of children still alive)
  • Nieces / Nephews: Characteristics of up to 10 nieces and nephews (gender, year of birth, year of death, and illness before death)
  • Parents / Grandparents: Characteristics of parents and grandparents (still alive, year of death, illness before death, cause of death)
  • Children: Characteristics of up to 9 children (gender, age, father's involvement, details on birth, residence, health, schooling, and info on death)
  • Pregnancy: Details of up to 5 pregnancies (outcome and dates)
  • Fertility: Questions on family planning
  • Happiness: Questions on mental well-being
  • Health Perceptions: Advice for pregnant women
  • Romantic Partnerships: Details on up to 2 sexual relationships (when it began, partner's education and employment, their religion and finances, sexual practices and contraceptive use)
  • Marriage: Details on up to 6 marriages (when started and ended, location, reason for ending, and ankhoswe)
  • HIV / AIDS: Prevalence of HIV and AIDS in household and village, testing, disclosure of status, and use of ARVs
  • Health Services: Details of up to 6 clinic vicists (location, reasons for visit, date of visits, and partner accompaniment)
  • Economics: Employment, earnings and savings, characteristics of home, land ownership, items owned by self and household
  • Technology: Phone ownership, frequency and reasons for use
  • Religion: What religion belong to, reason for changing religion, religious activities in the past month, importance of religion in life, and funerals attended in the last month

Response Rates

Response rates are broken out by when the respondent was enrolled in the study:

  • 2009: 68.8 percent (1,022 / 1,486)
  • 2012: 67.6 percent (213 / 315)
  • 2019: 96.1 percent (1,538 / 1,601)

Please note that of those numbers listed for 2019: 127 respondents were from 2009, and 29 respondents were from 2012. These comprise the 156 "twice-sampled respondents" mentioned previously.

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Original Release Date

2026-08-06

Version History

2026-08-06 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • ICPSR usually offers files in multiple formats for researchers to be able to access data and documentation in formats that work well within their needs. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR’s Accessibility Center.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.

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