Spatial patterns of child health inequalities in the province of Punjab, Pakistan : the advantages of GIS in data analysis

In the overall context of the Millennium Development Goals, Pakistan recently embarked on an effort to collect data regarding crucial issues of human development, such as health, poverty, and education. For their effective use in policy formulation, however, governments need to find ways of making the data easily accessible. It is argued that Geographical Information Systems (GIS) can play a major role here. The data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Statistics at district level are used in this article to develop maps on child health in the province of Punjab. Correlation allows identification of major determinants of the health status of children. For Punjab, these appeared to be mother literacy, vaccination coverage, and the incidence of poverty. Interpolation (here using Inverse Distant Weighting) and variable aggregation allow for easy identification of areas of concern at sub-district level. For Punjab, the areas most affected by negative health conditions are in the southwest. It is argued that health disparities can be addressed more effectively with the help of the presented methods because they help to close the information gap in the health system and contribute toward more precise allocation of funds and infrastructure.