A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF CHILD HEALTH IN NORTH-EAST STATES, INDIA: EVIDENCE FROM NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY 4 (2015-16).

Background: The future of a nation depends on the children and it?s our responsibility to ensure their healthy growth. Newborns are particularly vulnerable and children are vulnerable to malnutrition and infectious diseases, many of which can be effectively prevented or treated. According to WHO, nearly 6.9 million children under the age of five died in 2011 ? nearly 800 every hour?but most could survive threats and thrive with access to simple, affordable interventions. The risk of death is highest in the first month of life. Preterm birth, birth asphyxia and infections cause most newborn deaths. This paper attempts to assess the spatial patterns of utilization of child health care services across the districts of North-East states, India and to acquire a statistical intra-assessment of relatively high and low performing areas with respect to geographically proximal areas. Data and Methods: We used National Family Health Survey-4(2015-2016) fact sheets data on child health indicators for 87 districts of North-East states, India. Applied spatial analysis: Moran?s-I and LISA to assess the child health indicators across the districts. Result: All the indicators depicted striking coverage variation across the North-East states, India in this analysis. Among all the North-East states, the lowest prevalence of full immunization was observed in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; Vitamin-A in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. The prevalence of stunting and wasting was observed to be very high in Meghalaya and underweighted children were observed in Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya.