2018 Nigeria Demographic, Health Survey to help formulation of health policies – Population Commission

By Ruth Yarnap,  Bauchi

The National Population Commission (NPC) has disclosed  that 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) conducted nationwide would help governments in the formulation of good health policies.

This was revealed by the Bauchi state director of the commission, Musa Haruna Rashid during the state dissemination and launch of the 2018 NDHS report held at Hazibal suites Bauchi.

He said that the survey is designed to provide data for monitoring the population and health situation in Nigeria adding that the objective was to provide reliable estimates of demographic and health indicators including fertility, family planning methods, breastfeeding practices, nutritional status of women and children, maternal, child health, childhood and adult mortality.

According to him, others are women’s empowerment, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, malaria, HIV/AIDS, disability and other adult health issues.

The result of the survey, he said revealed a lot of things that could guide government in the formulation and implementation of policies and donor agencies in their intervention programs.

He stated that some of the findings in the report show that women in Nigeria have an average 5.3 children pointing out that since 1990 fertility has decreased from 6.0 children per woman to the current level.

According to the survey, ” Fertility also varies with education and household wealth. Women with no education have twice as many children than women with more than secondary education (6.7 versus 3.4),” the report showed.