The National Family Health Survey (NHFS) 2019-20 found that the infant and child mortality rates in Assam have witnessed a marginal decrease from the year 2015-16 to 2019-20.
The report published on Saturday said that the neonatal mortality rate (NNMR-per 1,000 live births) has decreased from 32.8 to 22.5.
The infant mortality rate (IMR) has decreased from 47.6 to 31.9 whereas the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) has decreased from 56.5 to 39.1.
The NFHS further said that the population living in households with electricity has also increased from 78.3 per cent to 92.6 per cent.
The National Family Health Survey 2019-20 (NFHS-5), the fifth in the NFHS series, provides information on population, health, and nutrition for India and each state/union territory (UT).
However, NFHS-5 includes some new topics, such as preschool education, disability, access to a toilet facility, death registration, bathing practices during menstruation, and methods and reasons for abortion.
The scope of clinical, anthropometric, and biochemical testing (CAB) has also been expanded to include measurement of waist and hip circumferences and the age range for the measurement of blood pressure and blood glucose has been expanded.
However, estimates of indicators of sexual behaviour; husband’s background and woman’s work; HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes and behaviour; and domestic violence are available only at the state/union territory (UT) and national level.
The main objective of each successive round of the NFHS has been to provide high-quality data on health and family welfare and emerging issues in this area.
NFHS-5 data will be useful in setting benchmarks and examining the progress the health sector has made over time.
Besides providing evidence for the effectiveness of ongoing programmes, the data also helps in identifying the need for new programmes with an area-specific focus and identifying groups that are most in need of essential services.