Childhood Morbidity and its Association with Socio-economic and Health Care Condition among Under 5 Years Children in West Bengal: An Evidence from NFHS-5, 2019-20

Copyright © 2021 Phcog.Net. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Cite this article : Ghosh K, Sen Gupta S, Chakraborty Sinha A. Childhood Morbidity and its Association with Socioeconomic and Health Care Condition among Under 5 Years Children in West Bengal: An Evidence from NFHS-5, 2019-20. Int J Med Public Health. 2021;11(2):x-x. ABSTRACT Introduction: Child health issue is a public health concern in India and the country has already set its goal to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) target to reduce under-five mortality to 25 per 1000 live births by 2030. A good socio-economic condition and health care facility can reduce child morbidity and mortality. Objectives: The present study aims to show the pattern of morbidity among under-five children and its association with socio-economic and health care condition in West Bengal. Materials and Methods: This study has been carried out from district level fact-sheets of NFHS-5 (2019-20). Dimension Indices (DI) are developed for the indicators of child morbidity, health care and socioeconomic status. Bivariate analyses are performed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Multivariate analyses are carried out using simple linear regression model. Results: Results show Purulia district of West Bengal represents a highest level of child morbidity and North Twenty-Four Parganas district as a low level of child morbidity status ; whereas, both districts show reverse status in the case of socio-economic and health care context. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient of child morbidity is negatively related with socio-economic (-0.54) and health care status (-0.62) and in both the cases they are significantly different from zero (P<0.05). Availability of electricity, women literacy, improved sanitation facility and child immunization are negatively correlated with child morbidity. Conclusion: The study recommends targeting the districts with high child morbidity, poor socio-economic and health care status and suggest improvements to reduce the same by facilitating improved sanitation facility, increase in women literacy and full immunization.