Assessing Child Health Disparities: Evidence from a Household-Based Health Index in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Around the world, undernutrition causes more than half of all deaths in children under 5 years of age. It also increases children's vulnerability to common diseases, impairs recovery, and stunts their physical and mental development. This paper investigates the state of child health and the assessment of health inequalities in children under 5 years, utilising Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys across 36 districts in Punjab, Pakistan. We suggest a new household-based health index to identify health disparities and to help policymakers implement more successful domestic policies to offset inequalities. Additionally, this study estimates the health disparities for robustness checks applying the Palma ratio and Gini coefficient. The study's findings revealed that every second child in Punjab is malnourished and that 51% of children in Punjab had not received all of their recommended vaccinations. The results also show that health disparities in low-income districts are worse than in high-income districts. The findings further demonstrate that important contributors to health disparities include parental illiteracy, poverty, and political backwardness. This study recommends a multifaceted policy intervention to address child immunization, undernutrition, and infectious disease legislation, as well as income inequality, to reduce health disparities.