Health problems among the street children of Dharan municipality

Background: The street children, a marginalised and vulnerable population to poor health, have grown all over the world and also in our country. The continuous exposure to harsh environment and nature of their life style threatens their mental, physical, social and spiritual well being. With the increasing number the problem is also growing at an alarming proportion. It is therefore important to have baseline data on their health problems. Objectives: This study was conducted to identify the physical health problems among the street children of Dharan Municipality, Nepal. Materials and methods: This is a cross sectional descriptive study. Forty eight subjects were included in the study. Research instruments included an interview schedule, physical health examination performa and lab investigations (i.e. blood for haemoglobin, urine routine examination/microscopic examination, stool routine examination / microscopic examination). Results: Study results showed that 68.8 % of the street children were between 11-15 years of age, 95.8 % were males. Out of the total subjects 81.2 % were found to be rag pickers. Research fi ndings reveal that 100 % of the subjects had at least one or more health problems. The study revealed that majority 87.5 % had the habit of cigarette smoking, 50 % had habit of consuming alcohol and 72.9 % had the habit of taking drug. Dendrite (glue sniffi ng) was the only drug used by th