Health Index

Subject – Governance

Context – Kerala best state on health parameters, Uttar Pradesh worst: Niti Aayog

Concept –

Kerala remained the best-performing state in the health indicators for a fourth consecutive time, according to Health index which also ranked Uttar Pradesh at the bottom of the rankings although the state also saw the most progress.
“The Healthy States, Progressive India” report — compiled by the Niti Aayog, Union Health Ministry and the World Bank for a fourth edition between 2019-2020 — surveyed 19 large states, eight small states and seven Union Territories.
- It did not include West Bengal and Ladakh due to unavailability of adequate data.
Among large states, Kerala and Tamil Nadu topped the list, and Telangana emerged strong on the third position in health outcomes and incremental performance.
Among small states, Mizoram emerged as the best performer and Nagaland the worst.
Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir were ranked the lowest among Union Territories in overall performance, but topped the list in incremental performance.

Parameters

The Health Index score is prepared based on the States’ performance across a large set of indicators that are divided into three broad domains — health outcomes, governance and information, and key inputs and processes.
Health outcomes, include parameters such as neonatal mortality rate, under-5 mortality rate and sex ratio at birth.
Governance includes institutional deliveries, average occupancy of senior officers in key posts earmarked for health.
And the “key inputs” domain consists of the proportion of shortfall in healthcare providers to what is recommended, functional medical facilities, birth and death registration and tuberculosis treatment success rate.