Prevalence of mal- nutrition among street children in selected areas of Pune city

Abstract

Children are the backbone of the country. They are the future men and women who will try to fulfil the cherish goals of happy and rich life. Street children are not only homeless but also poor. Poverty dumps a crowd of problems onto a child. Without these skills the child will, as an adult, remain at the bottom of the economic cheap.

Aim: To assess the health status of the street children from selected areas of Pune city. Health status was assessed on the basis of nutritional assessment.

Methods : A total of 100 samples, from children of age between 6-12 years were selected by using non probability convenient sampling technique. The developmental tool comprises of first demographic data to collect the baseline information which consists of age, gender, area, education, habits, occupation and income of parents. Second is physical examination like anthropometric measurement like pulse rate, respiration rate, temperature, blood pressure, height, weight, systematic assessment of physical parameters. And third, nutritional assessment.

Results: The findings of the study revealed 33 % of street children consumed tobacco. The most common diseases affecting the street children were acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) (47%). In addition, 22.7% and 18.4% of them suffered from diarrhoea and skin diseases respectively. The study also revealed Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI) was one of the commonest problem, skin diseases was 23%. However, there were fewer gastrointestinal problems. The study findings also revealed that there was a prevalence of stunted, underweight and wasted children. Out of 31% stunted growth, 04% of street children are severely wasted and 20% of street children are wasted. 7% of the street children are severely underweight and 28% of the street children are underweight.