Determinants of the socioeconomic and spatial pattern of undernutrition by sex in India: A geoadditive semi-parametric regression approach

Abstract

In this paper, we use geoadditive semiparametric regression models to study the determinants of chronic undernutrition of boys and girls in India in 1998/99. A particular focus of our paper is to explain the strong regional pattern in undernutrition and sex differences in determinants of undernutrition. We find that determinants associated with competition for household resources and cultural factors are more important for the nutrition of girls than boys, while boys' nutrition reactsmore sensitively to nutrition and medical care access. With our models we are able to explain a large portion of the spatial pattern of undernutrition of boys and girls, but significant spatial patterns remain. We are also able to fully explain the spatial pattern of sex differences in undernutrition with our empirical model. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.