Spatiotemporal variations in child undernutrition in Bihar: A district level analysis

Abstract

Child undernutrition is an important public health and development indicator and is an issue that needs urgent attention especially among developing countries. There is a universal acceptance among experts that children of all ethnic backgrounds cutting across geographical boundaries have similar growth potentials to at least five years of age. The three anthropometric measures viz. stunting, underweight and wasting are used to find out the amount of undernourishment. Bihar with 18.6% child population (0-6 years) ranks second only to Uttar Pradesh. As per the NFHS-5, Bihar with 42.5% stunted children is the highest among major states, underweight children at 41% is the highest in India and 22.9% wasting rate reflects that this state has miles to go to achieve this important public health challenge. The present study tries to study the spatial- temporal variations in child undernutrition among the districts using geospatial mapping in Bihar comparing the NFHS-4 and NFHS-5 data and seeks to find any regional pattern in its concentration. Spatial heterogeneity has been found in the anthropometric measures suggesting that the variations in determinants of child undernutrition play key role and the improvements vary over districts. Concentrating upon the regional hotspots of child undernutrition and targeted interventions can bring positive outcomes.