Modeling prevalence of stunting in relation to human development index in Indonesia

Abstract

The prevalence of stunting is a crucial indicator of the human development index. Human development in Indonesia can be improved by effectively allocating resources to implement health policies that directly impact the prevalence of stunting in children under five. Using Bayesian spatial regression, we examine the effects of the prevalence of stunting and other unobserved factors on the spatial variation of stunting in Indonesia's 34 provinces. We discovered that stunting's prevalence has a statistically significant effect on human development. There is also a strong spatial effect here, which accounts for unobservable factors such as socioeconomic level. Continuous efforts to reduce stunting in all of Indonesia's provinces will benefit the human development index.