Why in News?

• A report regarding Under five mortality rate was recently published by India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative in The Lancet Child & Adolescent journal.

Key Findings of the Report:

• The report says the overall under-five death rate and the death rate due to malnutrition has decreased substantially from 1990 to 2017.But malnutrition is still the leading risk factor for death in children under five years.
• Two-thirds of the 1.04 million deaths in children under five years in India are still attributable to malnutrition.
• The report states that the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) rate attributable to malnutrition in children varies 7-fold among the States and is highest in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Nagaland and Tripura.
• The report also states that low birth weight needs particular policy attention in India as it is the biggest contributor to child death among all malnutrition indications and its rate of decline is among the lowest.
• Another important revelation is that overweight among a subset of children is becoming a significant public health problem as it is increasing rapidly across all States.

About India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative:

• The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative is a joint initiative of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Public Health Foundation of India, and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare along with experts and stakeholders associated with over 100 Indian institutions, involving many leading health scientists and policy makers from India.