Population Characteristics of Maternal and Child Health Demographic Survey (MCHDS), Gujarat 2019

Aims: This research article aims to discuss the preliminary finding of Maternal and Child Health Demographic survey (MCHDS) and compare health and demographic indicators across urban, rural and tribal regions.

Study Design: MCHDS is longitudinal survey design and its methodological considerations are discussed briefly in another article.

Methods: MCHDS comprised 3 rounds, 1) Household survey 2) Maternal survey and 3) Child survey. Census survey method was used incorporating each and every individual from population. Total of 2,70,576 individuals were surveyed belonging to 58897 households in the baseline census. Under child survey, 12,370 under 5 children and under maternal survey 10,999 women (age 15-49) who were either pregnant at the time of survey, or had at least one pregnancy in 5 years preceding the survey were surveyed. Descriptive statistics is used to explore and understand the demographics and Maternal and child health indicators.

Results: Proportion of pucca houses were highest in urban followed by rural and tribal. Majority of the urban household had proper water and sanitation facility, followed by rural and tribal field site. Proportion of salaried employers was highest in urban followed by tribal and rural. Statistics based on wealth index, indicates that proportion of comparatively richer class (highest and fourth) was highest in urban followed by rural and tribal and proportion of poorest class (second and lowest) was highest in tribal followed by rural and urban.

Conclusion: All three regions have distinct socio-demographic and economic characteristics which coincides with the similar studies and national surveys. Urban and rural population was better off than tribal populations in terms of socio-demographics, economic status, housing, water and sanitation facility and morbidity scenario.