Introduction and Aim: Diarrhea is a significant public health problem, resulting in nearly 16% of child deaths below the age of five, globally. This study was undertaken to find the relation between geographical variance in diarrheal prevalence and spatial dependence among under-five children of Karkala taluk of Karnataka State, India, between 2015 to 2018.   Materials and Methods: Data on registered diarrheal cases among under-five children between April 2015 and March 2018was obtained from the State Department of Health and Family Welfare. The thematic maps were prepared for the study area using data available at the village level. The GeoDa software was used to carry out spatial data analysis and spatial autocorrelation. Spatial dependence was analyzed through the Global Moran's Index and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA).   Results: Three thousand eight hundred ninety-four under-five children were recorded with diarrhea in Karkala taluk with a mean annual rate of 123.6/1000 diarrheal cases. There was an increase in diarrheal incidence during the study period with peak trends being seasonal. Global and Local spatial correlation analysis detected several hot and cold spot clusters among villages in Karkala taluk.   Conclusion: Diarrheal incidence among under-five children is highly seasonal and spatially clustered. The spatial analysis helps decide preventive measures for identified clusters and determines the observed heterogeneity of diarrheal infection.

Nutritional status is one of the important factors that indicate children's proper development and growth. The geospatial analytic approach is useful in describing and analyzing the characteristics, depth, and coverage of the malnutrition burden among under-five children. This current scoping review was performed to systematically map the spatial analytical techniques and approaches applied in nutrition among under-five children. An organized online database search was conducted to identify articles published between 1995 and 2021 on under-five nutrition and spatial statistic in PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science. A total of 80 distinct articles were identified, of which 34 articles were used for the final review. A spatial statistical correlation was mainly used (n = 15), followed by Bayesian spatial modelling (n = 7), Global Moran's technique (n = 9), and Getis-Ord (n = 3). Nine studies in India concerning spatial analysis and undernutrition were conducted based on a national-level demographic health survey. There is a need for future spatial studies related to nutrition and under-five children at the sub-national level in India.