README file for: 	Supporting materials for qualitative fieldwork (Chapter 8): Understanding the effects of seasonality on acute child undernutrition and household coping mechanisms in selected areas of Bangladesh

Dataset DOI: 		https://doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/D3864
ReadMe file Author:	 Dr Alice Wolfle, University of Southampton, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1588-5177 

This dataset supports the PhD thesis entitled: 	Seasonality Matters: understanding the trends, determinants and coping strategies related to acute child undernutrition in Bangladesh 

Awarded by: 			University of Southampton
Thesis submission year: 	2026
Funding information: 		Economic and Social Research Council South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (Grant Number ES/P000673/1)
Institution(s): 		University of Southampton,  ICDDR,B
Ethical approvals:			University of Southampton (ERGO 88508.A1)
				ICDDR,B Institutional Review Board (PR-24018)


Author(s):

Alice Wolfle,		 a.wolfle@soton.ac.uk, alice.wolfle@ons.gov.uk, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1588-5177, University of Southampton
Fatema Tuz Zohora, 	fatema.zohora@icddrb.org, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4599-9658, Scopus ID: 58067485500; International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)
Prof. Amos Channon,	 a.r.channon@soton.ac.uk  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4855-0418:  University of Southampton 
Dr Shouro Dasgupta, 	shouro.dasgupta@cmcc.it,  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4080-8066 Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Venice, Italy; Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, UK
Prof Jim Wright, 	J.A.Wright@soton.ac.uk, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8842-2181,  University of Southampton
Dr Marije Schaafsma, 	m.schaafsma@vu.nl, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0878-069X;  Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Dr Nurul Alam, 		nalam@icddrb.org, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1202-4451, Health and Demographic Surveillance Programme (HDSP), International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)

Additional contributors to data collection:

Tasmima Rahin 	(Research assistant, facilitator), Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)
Nabila Mehejabin 	(Research assistant, note taker), Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)
Sanjana Kanta Kadre 	(Research assistant, note taker), , International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)
Dr Ayesha Turna 	(translation of participant materials), International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)
Razib Chowdhury 	(Dhaka HDSS participant recruitment), International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)

1. Overview/

This dataset contains the primary qualitative materials supporting Chapter 8 of the thesis, as part of an explanatory sequential mixed methods PhD research design. The qualitative fieldwork was supported by International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) and in collaboration with by Dr Shouro Dasgupta (CMCC).
 
Data collection period: February to March 2024, during seasonal transition period between winter and spring

Geographical area: Three Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) sites run by ICDDR,B in Bangladesh. A HDSS site is a geographically defined population that is regularly monitored to document births, deaths and migration events. Further context about the study areas can be found in Section 8.2.1 of PhD thesis:
* Korail (urban HDSS site, Dhaka)
* Mirpur (urban HDSS site, Dhaka)
* Matlab (rural HDSS site, Chandpur District)

Data collection method: Primary qualitative fieldwork using participatory focus group discussions with parents (mostly mothers) of children under five, supplemented by key informant interviews with ICDDR,B field staff. Sessions were facilitated using semi structured guides and involved visual participatory tools (seasonal calendars, risk scoring exercises, and coping strategy discussions) to explore seasonal experiences, perceived drivers of acute child undernutrition and coping strategies. 

Type of data: 	Qualitative 
Language: 	English and Bangla

Research aims:
The purpose of the fieldwork was to interpret, contextualise and triangulate findings from previous quantitative analyses (Chapters 5 to 7) relating to seasonal variation in acute child undernutrition. The qualitative fieldwork explored lived experiences of seasonality, perceptions of acute undernutrition, seasonal risk factors, coping strategies, and constraints across urban and rural contexts.


Research questions: 
1. How do different individuals characterise and divide the year into seasons? 
2. What is the perceived seasonal pattern and relative importance of risk factors and drivers of acute child undernutrition? 
3. Which coping strategies are considered by parents to mitigate seasonal variation in acute child undernutrition? 
4. What are the constraints and barriers for mitigating seasonal variation in acute child undernutrition? 
5. What are the similarities and differences in risk factors, coping strategies and barriers between urban and rural areas?

Abstract: 
Seasonal fluctuations in child health remain poorly understood in South Asian contexts, despite longstanding assumptions that monsoon related food insecurity is the dominant driver of acute undernutrition. This qualitative study examines how seasonal conditions influence acute child undernutrition and household responses in Bangladesh, drawing on focus group discussions with parents of children under five and insights from field staff across one rural and two urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System sites. The analysis explores local experiences of seasonality, perceived pathways linking environmental change to child health, and the coping mechanisms utilised across diverse settings.
Participants defined seasons not through scientific climatic variations or agricultural classifications as seen in previous research, but through embodied experiences of heat, humidity, rainfall patterns, and environmental discomfort. Across all sites, extreme heat and rapid temperature shifts, particularly during the pre monsoon and early monsoon periods, were described as the most difficult for young children, contributing to appetite suppression, acute illness, dehydration, and heightened infection risk. These seasonal stressors often preceded monsoon rainfall, challenging prevailing narratives that frame the wet season as the principal period of nutritional decline.
Households reported multiple, interacting seasonal risks, including water scarcity and contamination, mosquito proliferation, poor sanitation conditions, food price volatility, and seasonal disruptions in electricity, gas, and cooking fuels. Caregivers adopted a selection of strategies to mitigate these challenges characterised in previous literature. However, participants rarely perceived such strategies as ‘coping mechanisms. Additionally, the effectiveness was constrained by structural limitations, financial pressures, and infrastructural unreliability. Patterns were broadly consistent across sites, urban households faced more chronic environmental stress and pollution exposure which fewer coping strategies available.

Keywords Seasonality, Bangladesh, Acute undernutrition, Wasting, Child health, Qualitative


2. Structure of the supporting data/ 
The qualitative data provided contains four folders, with documentation designed to support transparency, reproducibility, and further research.

1_Transcripts/
2_Session_notes/
3_PIS_and_CI_forms/
4_Participatory_exercise_results/
A description of each folder is provided below.


3. Folder descriptions and contents/

1_Transcripts/

This folder contains English language transcripts of all focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs). Audio recordings were directly translated from Bangla into English and transcribed during the same process – therefore there are no transcripts written in Bangla.
* Transcripts were translated and prepared by a research assistant who facilitated each session.
* All transcripts are fully anonymised: identifying information (names, addresses, exact location of community visited) has been removed or redacted.
* Each transcript is labelled with consistent identifiers (e.g. FGD-xx_Transcript_<study location>_<date>_anon). `anon` reflects that the notes have been reviewed to ensure anonymity.  
* Transcripts include notes on non verbal information where available (e.g., pauses, group agreement, laughter). Transcripts include metadata about the session on the first page.

All transcripts were used in the hybrid inductive–deductive reflexive thematic analysis described in Chapter 8 (see Figure 8.4). A topic guide can be found in Appendix F.1 of PhD thesis.

2_Session_notes/

This folder contains:
* `FGD and KII session information.xlsx`  an excel file containing a summary of participant characteristics in all sessions.
* MS Word documents contain fieldnotes for each session, written by the second research assistant during and immediately after sessions, combined with principal researcher’s reflective notes taken during daily debriefs.
* Notes describing contextual details such as location, interruptions, environment (noise, heat, seating), and participant dynamics.
* Each corresponding MSword document containing session notes is labelled with consistent identifiers (e.g. FGDxx_Notes_<study location>_<date>_anon). `anon` reflects that the notes have been reviewed to ensure anonymity.  
* Each notes document include metadata about the session on the first page.

Notes and observations proved useful context about the community and participants to support thematic analysis and interpretation of the session transcripts.

3_PIS and_CI_forms/

This folder contains:
* Participant Information Sheet (PIS) in Bengali and English, outlining aims, voluntary participation, confidentiality, data use, and ethics approvals.
* Informed consent form (Bengali and English versions).
* Separate forms with slightly different wording were used for FGDs and KIIs
* All forms are blank copies (no signed copies are provided to maintain confidentiality).
* Notes regarding the consent process (e.g., how forms were read aloud for non literate participants, use of thumbprint signatures).

All participants provided informed consent. No children were directly interviewed; however, mothers often attended FGDs with young children.

4. Participatory_exercise_results/

This folder contains the combined outputs of participatory produced during FGDs: 

* Annotated diagrams produced by the facilitator and informed by participant discussions were translated into English and were photographed at the end of each session. The results for each FGD have been presented into tables and have been combined into excel files. Photographs of the original seasonal calendars and ranking exercises in Bengali may be provided upon request. 
* Seasonal calendars drawn collaboratively with participants. The excel file includes a different seasonal calendar for each FGD, which are numbered at the top of each calendar. First, the seasons were defined based on participants’ experiences, rather than starting with the traditional Bengali six seasons or seasonal classifications from previous research. Definition of the seasons vary for each FGD. Column A refers to the topic described in each section of the calendar: 

o 	Characterising the seasons 
o 	Seasonal occurrence of acute child undernutrition symptoms 
o 	Seasonal occurrence of risk factors associated with acute undernutrition and infections 
o 	Seasonal coping strategies to manage seasonal stressors related to poor health and acute undernutrition.
o 	At the bottom of each calendar, a colour code is provided to indicate the importance of each factor, or to indicate if it was a positive or negative factor. 

* Risk factor and coping strategy ranking exercises (season specific ranking of drivers of acute undernutrition). The risk factors that were mentioned during the seasonal calendar discussions were noted on post it notes by the notetaker and then revisited later in the session. Participants were asked to rank each in order of highest to lowest risk for each season defined earlier in the FGD. The post it note rankings were photographed and later tabulated and translated into English. The excel file contains 3 tabs, within each tab, each separate table (labelled in column A) represents a different season, and each column reflects the ordered rankings for each FGD.: 

o 	Risk factors
o 	Coping strategies 
o 	Barriers. NB: Due to time constraints, some FGDs did not complete the exercise of ranking ‘Barriers’

The visual materials (seasonal calendars and ranking exercises) produced during the participatory focus group sessions were photographed and translated which were used during the data analysis.
4. Data collection summary/

Study design

* Focus group discussions with parents (mostly mothers) (aged 18 to 49 years) of children under 5.
* KIIs with ICDDR,B field staff responsible for obtaining demographic surveillance data within each study area, who have an excellent rapport and knowledge of each community and one senior clinician.
* Total data collected: 

o 	17 FGDs (15 female groups, 2 male groups; 10 rural groups, 7 urban groups). The number of FGD participants ranged between 3 to 11, with a mean of 6.7 participants per group. The duration ranged between 45 to 90 minutes, with a mean of approximately 1 hour.
o 	4 KIIs (one per HDSS site; two KIIs were conducted as small focus groups with multiple HDSS field staff. A total of 14 key informants were consulted)
o 	A total of 113 FGD participants (101 women, 12 men)

* Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools (seasonal calendars, risk scoring, discussion based exercises) to minimise the imposition of the pre existing knowledge assumptions.
* Sessions were recorded and later translated and transcribed by the employed research assistant who was trained and facilitated each session.

Sampling
* Purposive sampling facilitated by local HDSS field staff.
* Participants were recruited within short walking distance from FGD locations.
* Sessions held in indoor and outdoor community spaces, HDSS offices (urban), or participant homes (rural).
* Participants in urban areas had more homogenous socioeconomic characteristics compared to the rural FGDs. A more diverse range of livelihood opportunities were observed from a larger geographic sample area in the rural communities

5. Analytical approach/

All transcripts and participatory outputs were analysed using a hybrid inductive deductive reflexive thematic analysis, (detailed in PhD thesis, Section 4.3.2 and Chapter 8) informed by:

* Braun & Clarke (2006; 2019)
* Critical realist mixed methods integration
* Triangulation of pre existing quantitative results discussed in PhD thesis 
* To reflect the complexities of perceptions and lived experiences
* Unexpected, themes identified from the qualitative data
* Seasonal coding structure (season specific themes)

Steps included:


1. Familiarisation and open coding
2. Season based coding (systematic coding by participant defined seasons)
3. Cross tabulation of themes by study site and season
4. Thematic coding into 5 main themes: 

o Acute illness
o Extreme temperatures
o Disease environment
o Food & cooking practices
o Financial issues
5. Development of seasonal calendars for each theme (Tables 8.1 8.5)


6. Ethical and data handling notes/

* Ethical approvals: University of Southampton (ERGO 88508.A1); ICDDR,B Institutional Review Board (PR-24018)
* All data have been anonymised in accordance with ethics approvals. Reuse of data should align with the original consent process.
* The dataset does not include identifiable data of research participants. Visual materials have been edited to remove incidental identifying details.
* Consent was obtained with signed consent forms for every participant. We informed each person about our institutions, the project, and the themes of the interview, their role and that they could leave at any point. 
* Templates for consent forms and participant information sheets are included in both English and Bangla. Signed consent forms are not included.

7. Software used/

* NVivo (qualitative data analysis)
* Microsoft Word (transcription formatting)
* Microsoft Excel (presentation of preliminary results from participatory exercises)

8. Suggested citation/

Wolfle, A., Zohora, FT., Channon, A., Dasgupta, S., Wright, J., Schaafsma, M., Alam, N., (2026). Understanding the effects of seasonality on acute child undernutrition and household coping mechanisms in selected areas of Bangladesh [Data Collection]. University of Southampton. https://doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/D3864

9. Contact/
For questions regarding the dataset or thesis materials:
Email:		 a.wolfle@soton.ac.uk; alice.wolfle@yahoo.co.uk; alice.wolfle@ons.gov.uk; a.r.channon@soton.ac.uk 
ORCID: 		0000-0002-1588-5177

