Project summary
The Guttmacher Institute collects a wide range of critical data on sexual and reproductive
health, both in the U.S. and internationally. The purpose of the proposed project is to create new
public-use datasets and make them freely available to the wider research community, providing
new resources for scholars and students to examine sexual and reproductive health topics not
covered by other publicly available data. The datasets are expected to be used in research
analyses, dissertations, theses and other academic publications, as well as classroom exercises.
Guttmacher will produce a total of 14 public-use datasets using R03 funds. These datasets
include a nationally representative survey of U.S. family planning providers, U.S. county-level
data on numbers of women in need of services, numbers of clinics and numbers of clients
served, and surveys of adolescents and school staff in low- and middle-income countries on the
provision of sexuality education and the sexual and reproductive health information and service
needs of young people. All datasets will be cleaned, deidentified and thoroughly documented to
ensure ease of use. Datasets will be housed at the Data Sharing for Demographic Research
(DSDR) archive at the University of Michigan. A parallel index will be maintained on the website
of Guttmacher's population center, as well as on Guttmacher's Data Center webpage (accessible
from the main website), to facilitate access by different audiences. The availability of these
datasets will be publicized broadly at professional meetings, electronically via listserves and
social media, and through other channels. The proposed project will enable researchers around
the globe, particularly those in low-income countries with more limited research resources, to
benefit from access to data not previously available in order to answer questions across the
domains of fertility and reproductive health, with the ultimate goal of improving the health of
women and men of all ages worldwide.