Do malnutrition, pre-existing morbidities, and poor household environmental conditions aggravate susceptibility to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)? A study on under-five children in India

BACKGROUND: The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (2019-nCoV) outbreak, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become the worst serious global risk to humanity in the last century and linked with various risk factors. OBJECTIVE: To find out the risk zone associated with Coronavirus disease among children under-five age using malnourished status, pre-existing morbidity conditions, poor household environmental conditions, and also with case fatality rate (CFR) and active case rate (ACR) of COVID-19 in India. DATA SOURCES & METHODS: Data was collected from the 4th round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4, 2015–16, and CFR and ACR of COVID-19 related data collected from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on 18th May 2020. Mean, standard deviation, and Z-score statistical methods have been employed to identify the risk factors zone and Hot Spot analysis (Getis-Ord Gi) has been done. RESULTS: The states and union territories (UTs) which have a high composite vulnerability score (CVS) of COVID-19 among under-five children are in Meghalaya (CVS = 1), Uttar Pradesh (CVS = 0.93), Jharkhand (CVS = 0.86), Bihar (CVS = 0.74), Madhya Pradesh (CVS = 0.74), and Odisha (CVS = 0.55). The states and UTs which have low composite vulnerability score of COVID-19 among under-five children are in Sikkim (CVS = -0.90), Daman & Diu (CVS = -0.76) Lakshadweep (CVS = -0.74), Kerala (CVS = -0.72), Chandigarh (CVS = -0.71). The COVID-19 high-risk zones (hot spot: 99% Confidence interval [CI]) were observed in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Meghalaya states of India, which are spatially high clustered and the low-risk zones (cold spot: 95% CI) were observed in Kerala, Mizoram states of India. CONCLUSIONS: Well-built public health measures, including rapidly searching in high focus areas and testing of COVID-19, should be performed in vulnerable regions of COVID-19.