In 2014-2015, India implemented the fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4). Like its predecessors, NFHS-4 was conducted under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, was coordinated by the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, and was implemented by a group of survey organizations and Population Research Centres, following a rigorous selection procedure. Technical assistance for NFHS-4 was again provided by ICF International, USA, with major financial support from the United States Agency for International Development and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
In addition to the 29 states, NFHS-4 also included all six union territories for the first time and provided estimates of most indicators at the district level for all 640 districts in the country as per the 2011 census. The NFHS-4 sample size was expected to be approximately 568,200 households, up from about 109,000 households in NFHS-3. This was expected to yield a total sample of 625,014 women and 93,065 men eligible for the interview. In these households, information on 265,653 children below age 5 was collected in the survey. Data was collected using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) on mini-notebook computers.
NFHS-4 provided updates and evidence of trends in key population, health, and nutrition indicators, including HIV prevalence. Moreover, the survey covered a range of health-related issues, including fertility, infant and child mortality, maternal and child health, perinatal mortality, adolescent reproductive health, high-risk sexual behavior, safe injections, tuberculosis, malaria, non-communicable diseases, domestic violence, HIV knowledge, and attitudes toward people living with HIV. The information enabled the GOI to help national and international agencies monitor and evaluate policies and programs related to population, health, nutrition, and HIV/AIDS.
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