Household and Community Socioeconomic and Environmental Determinant of Child Morbidity in India: A Multilevel Analysis of Pooled Data from Three Demographic and Health Survey

Awdhesh Yadav, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Ranjana Kesarwani, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Child morbidity is a leading cause of mortality among children in developing countries more specifically in India. This paper examines the household, community socioeconomic and environmental determinants of child morbidity in India. The present study utilizes data from National Family Health Survey conducted in 1992-92, 1998-99 and 2005-06. The study uses pooled multilevel logistic regression model to estimate the net effect of both household and community factors and their relative importance of individual risk factors over time. The finding demonstrate that child’s sex and age, size of birth, duration of breastfeeding, mothers age at child birth, improved household (water, toilet , cooking fuel and type of house) are significant determinants of child morbidity. There is also strong evidence of the impact of community level factors on child morbidity. This study suggest that the challenge to reduce the prevalence of child morbidity goes beyond the individual factors, and requires to understanding of contextual factors.