A study of Substance Abuse and Quality of Life among Street Children in District Etawah
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47203/IJCH.2019.v31i04.011Keywords:
Quality of life, Street child, urbanization,, TobaccoAbstract
Background: The research series on street children are carried out in major cities by neglecting the rapidly developing small cities experiencing widespread urbanization. Unfortunately, there is lack of research-based evidences in field of mental health status and quality of life of street children. Aim & Objective: The study aimed to study the pattern of substance abuse & their correlates among street children and to assess the ‘quality of life’ among street children. Material & Methods: A sample of 145 street children of 13-18 years were enrolled by purposive sampling from January 2017 - June 2018 in Market places, Railway station, Bus depot etc. Subjects were searched at known hotspots in Etawah, and further sample was covered using snowball sampling. Information was gathered using predesigned and pre-structured questionnaire, along with WHOQOLBREF and Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Involvement Scale questionnaire. Results: Average Quality of life was tested using t test and ANOVA. Most of the street children 55% were aged between 13-15 years, 65 % had attended school for at least one year. Quality of life showed higher Physical health. Street living children had less psychological health score (30.3±7.1). Prevalence of drug abuse was 54%, while tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, inhalants, were the drugs consumed. Conclusion: Psychological health was more affected. Tobacco & alcohol were the common drugs consumed.
Downloads
References
UNICEF. A study on street children in Zimbabwe. Evaluation report. Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children and Adolescents in Zimbabwe. 2001;89-104
de Benítez ST. State of the world’s street children. Orphans and other vulnerable children and adolescents in Zimbabwe. Consortium for street children London; 2011. 21-36
Volpi E. Street children: Promising practices and approaches. Children, Youth and Environments. 2003;13(1):128-146.
Abdullah MA, Basharat Z, Lodhi O, Wazir MHK, Khan HT, Sattar NY, et al. A qualitative exploration of Pakistan’s street children, as a consequence of the poverty-disease cycle. Infectious diseases of poverty. 2014;3(1):11.
West A. At the margins: Street children in Asia and the Pacific. Philippines. 2003. 24. Report No. 100103.
Save the Children India - Life on streets. Publications [Internet]. Save the Children India- Life on streets. [Accessed on 23/11/2019]. Available from: https://www.savethechildren.in/resource-centre/publications
de Benitez ST. Street children: A mapping & gapping review of the literature 2000-2010. London: Consortium for street children. 2011. 7-16.
Mannert K, Dehning S, Krause D, Leitner B, Rieder G, Siebeck M, et al. Quality of life in Ethiopia’s street youth at a rehabilitation center and the association with trauma. Journal of traumatic stress. 2014;27(5):593–601.
Ghosh A. Street children of Calcutta: A situational analysis. Noida. National labour Institute, Child labour cell; 1992. 57.
Asha R, Jane S. Street children: a challenge to the social work profession. Bombay: Tata Institute of Social Sciences; 1994. 196-204.
User Agreement for WHOQOL-BREF - [email protected] - Gmail [Internet]. [Accessed on 23/11/2019]. Available from: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#search/syntax/15974c08e00a9138
WHO. WHOQOL user manual: Programme on mental health. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1998. 42-46.
WHO | The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) [Internet]. WHO. [Accessed on 23/11/2019]. Available from: http://www.who.int/mental_health/publications/whoqol/en/
Moberg DP, Hahn L. The adolescent drug involvement scale. Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse. 1991;2(1):75–88.
Embleton L, Mwangi A, Vreeman R, Ayuku D, Braitstein P. The epidemiology of substance use among street children in resource-constrained settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Addiction. 2013;108(10):1722–1733.
Naik PR, Gokhe SSB, Shinde RR, Nirgude AS. Street children of Mumbai: Demographic profile and substance abuse. Biomedical Research. 2011;22(4):5.
Feder K, Michaud DS, Keith SE, Voicescu SA, Marro L, Than J, et al. An assessment of quality of life using the WHOQOL-BREF among participants living in the vicinity of wind turbines. Environmental research. 2015;142:227–238.
Benegal V, Bhushan K, Seshadri S, Karott M. Drug abuse among street children in Bangalore. In: A project in Collaboration between NIMHANS, Bangalore and the Bangalore Forum for street and working children. CRY. 1998. [Internet]. [Accessed on 28/08/2018]. Available from: http://www.nimhans.ac.in/child-and-adolescent-psychiatry/research
Gaidhane AM, Syed Zahiruddin Q, Waghmare L, Shanbhag S, Zodpey S, Joharapurkar SR. Substance abuse among street children in Mumbai. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies. 2008;3(1):42–51.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2019 Indian Journal of Community Health
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
