Impact of Women Empowerment on Infant Mortality Rate – Spatial Lag and Error Regression Model

Background: Despite significant progress in recent decade, the burden of infant mortality in India remains high. As women is the main caregiver to the infant, women empowerment may be the important determinant of infant mortality rate which has received little attention. Therefore, the current study was planned to study the impact of women empowerment on infant mortality and to find the best fit regression model to predict infant mortality rate in various states of India. Methods: The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16 data was used and infant mortality rate in various states and union territories of India was mapped. Regression analysis was performed with infant mortality rate as the dependent variable. The exploratory variables (Percentages) used for women empowerment were the literacy among women, women who opted for institutional delivery, women owning a house and/or land (alone or jointly with others), women having a bank or saving account and women having mobile phone that they themselves used. Ordinary Least Square Regression and spatial lag and error regression models were applied. Infant mortality rates predicted by using the best fit model were mapped. Results: Institutional delivery, owning a bank account and availability of personal mobile phone showed statistically significant inverse relation with infant mortality rate. Out of three regression models, spatial lag regression model was found to be the best fit model to predict infant mortality rate. The northern and eastern states were predicted to have highest infant mortality rate. Conclusion: As northern and eastern states were predicted to have highest infant mortality rate, further studies at individual level may be planned to find out the factors in these regions.