Community Level Determinants of High Neonatal Mortality in India

Sagarika Rout, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Abhishek Singh, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Debasis Barik , NCAER

Neonatal mortality (NMR) is considered as a major cause of concern, contributing to a high infant mortality rate in India. However, NMR is not uniform across the country. Health interventions needed for reduction of NMR is different from those required to reduce infant and child mortality. Since health facilities are nested within communities and households are nested within those communities, it becomes difficult to study the factors related to NMR using simple multivariate models. Using National Family Health Survey (2005-06) data, we have detangled the effects of individual, household and state level factors on neonatal mortality by applying a multilevel hierarchical model. Results suggest that besides individual level factors, community level factors play a significant role in reducing NMR. This indicates for a need to enhance health infrastructures in states which are lagging behind.

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 Presented in Session 11. Health & Mortality 2