Socio-economic determinants of anthropometric inequalities among the children of under five years in mega cities of india

Objective. Children morbidity and mortality is highly associated with their anthropometric measures. Hence, the objective of this paper was to compare anthropometric measures of under-five children in the slum and non-slum areas five major cities of India.
Method. This study based on secondary data analysis and data was obtained fromMeasuredhs USA, which was used for National Family Health Survey – III (NFHS-III).Data for five major metropolitan cities namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad were used for the analysis. Slum and non-slum households data as classified by both Census of India and NFHS-III were considered for analysis. Variables which were more relevant as the indicator for the growth and development of children such asage, height, weight, hemoglobin, etc., considered for this study.
Results. Mean values of height, weight, hemoglobin, age and birth order were compared between slum and non-slum categories. Significant difference was observed on hemoglobin and birth order between slum and non-slum categories for both genders. Step-wise multiple regression analysis resulted that all the independent variables were significantly contributed for determining slum children weight. On the other hand, SLI and birth order did not contribute for determining weight of the non-slum children. Explained variation in weight was 72% and 74% for slum and non-slum respectively in the regression models.
Conclusion. Height and weight is not making significant difference by Standard of Living Index among girl children, but it is significant for boys. Standard of Living Index and birth order were not significant variables for determining weight in non-slum children.