Understanding the Geographical Heterogeneity of Children Undernourished and Its Risk Factors across the Districts of India: Geographically Weighted Regression Analysis

Apoorva Nambiar, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Ashish Singh, School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology
Dharma Arunachalam, Monash University
Satish Agnihotri, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Undernutrition among children remains a critical global development issue, with India identified as one of the countries where prevalence is alarmingly high, particularly among Low- and Middle-Income nations. Despite recent evidence of a slight reduction in rates, the goals for tackling undernutrition in India are far from being achieved. To address this, new approaches are necessary to analyze the problem and its risk factors. This study, using the latest data from the 2019-20 fifth round of the National Family Health Survey, aims to uncover region-specific spatial heterogeneity and dependencies in the relationship between undernutrition and its risk factors across 705 districts in India. Principal Component Analysis and geo-spatial techniques, including spatial-econometric regression models, were employed to identify low- and high-burden pockets of undernutrition and plan calibrated interventions. The study utilizes five composite indices to measure critical factors influencing undernutrition, such as service delivery, household environment, maternal and child nutrition, early pregnancy and marriage, and household economic affordability. The results highlight significant geographical variation in the correlation between child health and its spatial-risk factors, with the direction and strength of these relationships varying by region. This emphasizes the need for localized interventions tailored to the specific conditions of different regions.

Keywords: Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Health and Morbidity, Spatial Demography

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