APPLICATION OF RISK ADJUSTED EWMA CONTROL CHART FOR MONITORING THE ANEMIC NATURE OF UNDER-AGE FIVE CHILDREN

Abstract

Anemia has been identified as critical health problem, especially in the African region. Several concrete researches of the incident and prevalence of anemia have been conducted. However, adequate effort has not been focused on monitoring the statistical risks of anemia in children. This research aimed at applying risk adjusted EWMA control chart at the appropriate value of smoothening and the width parameter in monitoring the anemic nature of under-age five children. Data were obtained from Demographic and Health Survey data base. The application was done in two steps. In the first step, maximum likelihood estimation was used to obtain the best risk adjusted model coefficients and to select the significant risk factors. The second step involved constructing the EWMA control chart to determine the children who are at higher risk of long term anemia. Result showed that there are 25% of the children whose anemic nature are extreme. Clusters of children with out-of-control risks of anemia were identified.