On the decomposition of rank-dependent indicator of socio-economic inequalities in child malnutrition: Some empirical findings

Abstract

The persistent socioeconomic disparities in child under-nutrition in developing countries raises an important health policy question - whether different nutrition base interventions are required for different areas? Addressing this question, the main objective of this study is to investigate the trends of socio-economic inequalities in child undernutrition in Pakistan and to assess the causes of these inequalities through decomposition analysis. Using Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, round 2017–18, data this study examined inequalities in child undernutrition through different health inequality indices. Moreover, decomposition analysis is performed by applying generalized decomposition procedure under recentered influence function (RIF) regression to find the contribution of (i) differences in levels of different factors (composition effects) and (ii) differences in the intensity of association between socio-demographic factors and child undernutrition (coefficient effects) to the observed inequality. Study findings suggest substantial pro-educated inequalities in child under-nutrition. In addition, the decomposition analysis reveals the factors such as parental education and wealth status are significant contributors to the observed inequality. Moreover, different policy interventions, for rural and urban areas are suggested. There is the need to design public health, nutrition-based, interventions to overcome rural urban disparities through bridging gaps in educational endowments of rural and urban populations. Moreover, a balanced distribution of wealth might be helpful to reduce the rural-urban gap.