Abstract
Objectives
Indian agriculture is mostly dependent on monsoon. Poor and irregular rainfall may result in crop failure and food shortage among the vulnerable population. This study examined the variations in drought condition and its association with under age 5 child malnutrition across the districts of India.
Methods
Using remote sensing and National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) data, univariate Moran’s I and bivariate local indicator of spatial autocorrelation (LISA) maps were generated to assess the spatial autocorrelation and clustering. To empirically check the association, we applied multivariate ordinary least square and spatial autoregressive models.
Results
The study identified highly significant spatial dependence of drought followed by underweight, stunting, and wasting. Bivariate LISA maps showed negative spatial autocorrelation between drought and child malnutrition. Regression results suggest agricultural drought is substantially associated with stunting. An increasing value of drought showed statistical association with the decreasing (β = − 8.251; p value < 0.05) prevalence rate of child stunting across India.
Conclusions
This study provides evidence of child undernutrition attributable to drought condition, which will further improve the knowledge of human vulnerability and adaptability in the climatic context.
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Availability of data and materials
The NFHS-4 or DHS (2015–2016) survey data for India are publicly available free of charge and archived at https://www.dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm. The metrological index data, SDCI was generated and archived athttps://mirador.gsfc.nasa.gov/ (TRMM 3B43); https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ (MOD13Q1 and MOD11A2).
Abbreviations
- DEM:
-
Digital elevation model
- FAO:
-
Food and Agricultural Organization
- IPCC:
-
Intergovernmental panel on climate change
- LISA:
-
Local indicator of spatial autocorrelation
- LST:
-
Land surface temperature
- MODIS:
-
Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer
- NDVI:
-
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
- NFHS:
-
National family health survey
- OLS:
-
Ordinary least squares
- PCI:
-
Precipitation condition index
- PoU:
-
Prevalence of undernutrition
- SDCI:
-
Scaled drought condition index
- SRTM:
-
Shuttle radar topography mission
- TCI:
-
Temperature condition index
- TRMM:
-
Tropical rainfall measuring mission
- VCI:
-
Vegetation condition index
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Acknowledgements
The authors cordially acknowledge the editor and the reviewers for their valuable suggestions and comments. The authors are also thankful and acknowledge the language editorial support by Mr. Jahedar Rahaman Khan, WBCS, Executive (Retd.).
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Shaw, S., Khan, J. & Paswan, B. Spatial modeling of child malnutrition attributable to drought in India. Int J Public Health 65, 281–290 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01353-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01353-y