Does the Availability of Community Health Worker/Mobile-Health Van Unit within the Community Impacts Neonatal Survival?

Abstract

This study uses the data from the National Family Health Survey round-2. Using hierarchical linear models the role of community level variables in predicting neonatal deaths at individual level is analyzed. SAS sub-routine PROC GLIMMIX is used for hierarchical linear modeling. Findings re-enforce the importance of mother’s literacy and tetanus toxid vaccination during pregnancy in predicting neonatal deaths at individual level. At community level, though the magnitude of the presence of either a private doctor, or a visiting doctor, or a village guide, or a traditional health attendant, or the presence of mobile health van unit within community is in an expected direction, the effect is statistically not significant. In order to capture true impact of community level intervention of program success it is imperative that the large demographic surveys should incorporate more and more community level indicators while designing these surveys.