National Health Profile 2019

Source: Press Information Bureau & Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI)

Recently the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare released the 14thNational Health Profile (NHP)2019 & its e-book (digital version) This 14th edition of NHP is the continuation of the publication since 2005.

Who prepared it?

The NHP is prepared by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) (annually)

What it covers?

NHP covers comprehensive information on demographic, socio-economic health status, health finance indicators, health infrastructure and health of human resources in the country.

Key highlights of NHP

• The NHP highlights substantial health information under major indicators viz. 
  1. Demographic indicators (population and vital statistics)
  2. Socio-economic indicators (education, employment, housing and amenities, drinking water and sanitation) and
  3. Health status indicators (incidence and prevalence of common communicable and non-communicable diseases andRCH) etc.
• The health finance section provides an overview of health insurance and expenditure on health, both public and Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOP), etc. 
• The section on human resources provides an overview of availability of manpower working in the health sector, while the health infrastructure section provides details of Medical and Dental Colleges, AYUSH Institutes, Nursing Courses, and Paramedical Courses, etc.

Key findings

• Life Expectancy at Birth: It has increased from 49.7 years in 1970-75 to 68.7 years in 2012-16. For the same period, the Life Expectancy for Females is 70.2 years and 67.4 years for Males
• Infant Mortality Rate(IMR): Infant Mortality Rate has declined considerably (33 i.e. Per 1000 Live Births in 2016), however, differentials of rural (37) & urban (23) are still high.

• Demographics: It reports a high incidence of the young and economically active population(27% of the population below 14 years, 64.7% are in the age group of 15-59 and 8.5% above 60 years of age)

• Total Fertility Rate(TFR): The TFR for the country was 2.3 whereas in rural areas it has been 2.5 and it has been 1.8 in urban areas during 2016 as per the latest available information.

Importance 

• Health data is an important source of understanding the needs and issues of the population
• It helps in understanding the goals, our strengths, and weaknesses and is also an important means to strategize area-specific interventions.
• Good quality data enables policymakers to make evidence-based policies and aids effective implementation of various schemes