Spatial and Geographical Determinants of Malnutrition among Children under Age 5 Years in India: A Multilevel Analysis

Abstract

Malnutrition poses a grave threat to the overall health of an alarmingly large number of Indians, particularly young children under the age of five. The regional and spatial factors that have an impact on malnutrition in children under the age of five in India were examined in this study using a multilevel methodology. All of the attendees were from the Indian continent. The sample for India's Fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) consisted of 205,641children under the age of five who were selected from different Indian districts. The third element looked into was stunting, a symptom of chronic malnutrition. The findings of the multilevel analysis demonstrate that individual-level characteristics that contribute to stunting include a child's age, gender, and birth weight as well as her education and employment status. Only a few of the factors at the community level that had an impact on the result included access to sanitary facilities, prenatal care, and clean water. Some of the indications of district-level success included the number of homes having access to better sanitary facilities, the percentage of homes with access to clean drinking water, and the proportion of families with televisions. The findings of this study demonstrate the need for policies that provide access to prenatal care, sanitary facilities, and safe drinking water in regions in India where poverty and educational achievement are high. The number of under-five malnourished children in India is the intended target population for these activities, which seek to reduce the prevalence of the condition. Some of the terms used are malnutrition, targeted interventions, food security, poverty, education, and policy interventions. Other terms are sanitary facilities, maternity healthcare, poverty, education, and multilevel analysis.