School of Public Health, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (SRM MCH&RC), Kattankulathur was awarded the prestigious National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS) projects in 2018 for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (II Phase States). These Ministry of Health & Family Welfare projects are used to conduct surveys and collect health-related data from households in all districts.
On 24th November 2021, the Government of India (GoI) released the key findings of the survey after the successful completion of 14 states of the second phase by Dr. V.K.Paul, Member Niti Ayog and Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. For more information on the National Dissemination visit https://www.iipsindia.ac.in/sites/default/files/National_Dissemination.pdf.
NFHS-5, the fifth in the NFHS rounds, provides information on population, health, and nutrition for India and each state/union territory (UT) and also provides data at the District Level. The metrics of NFHS-5 are similar to NFHS-4 to understand patterns and to allow temporal comparisons.
As in the previous rounds, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, designated the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, as the nodal agency to conduct NFHS-5. The main objective of each NFHS is to provide robust data on health and family welfare and emerging issues in this area to help direct policies at the Central and Local levels. This round includes some new topics, such as preschool education, disability, access to a toilet facility, death registration, menstrual hygiene, and abortion. The scope of clinical, anthropometric, and biochemical testing (CAB) has also been extended to include measurement of waist and hip circumferences, and the age range for the measurement of blood pressure and blood glucose has been expanded.
This fact sheet provides information on key indicators and trends for Tamil Nadu. Due to the pandemic situation and the imposition of lockdown, NFHS-5 fieldwork in phase 2 States/UTs was conducted in two parts. NFHS-5 fieldwork for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry was conducted from 6th January to 21st March 2020, prior to the lockdown and from 21st December 2020, to 31st March 2021 post lockdown by the School of Public Health. Over 30,000 households, 29,000 women, and close to 4000 men in Tamil Nadu (http://rchiips.org/nfhs/NFHS-5_FCTS/Tamil_Nadu.pdf) and Puducherry (http://rchiips.org/nfhs/NFHS-5_FCTS/Puducherry.pdf) were surveyed.
The success was only possible due to the encouragement and support received from the Pro-Chancellor (Academics) Dr. P. Sathyanarayan, Vice Chancellor Dr. C. Muthamizhchelvan and Pro VC (MHS) Lt Col Dr. Ravikumar.
The executing team under the leadership of Dr. Padma Venkat, Dean, School of Public Health (SPH) comprised of Co-Project Leads Ms. Geetha Veliah and Dr. Prakash. M, Assistant Professors. They were ably supported by a core team of Dr. C. Ramanujam, Dr. M. Bagavandas, Dr. G.Vadivu, and Dr.M. Lograj for conducting Tamil Nadu North and Puducherry and by a core team constituting of Dr.B. Kalpana, Dr. Varadarajan, Dr. Kayalvizhi Jayavel, and Dr. Balaji. RB for Tamil Nadu South for the Main Survey, by Dr. Bharathi and Mr. Sathish for the Mapping and Listing phase, and colleagues from the School of Public Health.
The team acknowledges the required support extended by the Governments of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and the respective health departments. For more information about NFHS 5 (TN and Puducherry) and its implementation connect with the Dean, School of Public Health at dean.sph.ktr@srmist.edu.in.
