Determinants of Health Condition and Estimation of Demographic Parameters of Street Children in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Abstract

Health and demographic condition of street children are important issues for the development of any country. Several researchers estimated that a substantial percent of total street children in Bangladesh are living in the Capital City, Dhaka, Bangladesh. But no study is available which concentrated to in-depth study of health condition and estimation of demographic parameters for the street children. So the aim of this study is to identify the determinants of health condition and estimation of demographic parameters of street children in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. We have used convenient sampling for selection of samples. The data were collected from 1108 street children in different places of Dhaka City using a comprehensive questionnaire. In this study, x2 statistic was used to test the significance of the association between the dependent and independent variables of the street children. Binary logistic regression model was also employed to identify the effect of the some important independent variables on dependent variable. To have a smooth pattern of age 3 years moving average technique and "4253H twice" smoothing technique were applied in this study. It was found that among total sample data 84.9% were male and only 15.1 % were female. Age structure of street children followed a polynomial function of degree four. Probability of dying (qJ calculated for street Children showed an expected pattern. The migration rate from rural to urban of male street children was higher than that of female street children. Migration rate of street working children was the highest among four types of street children. Migration rate of street children of illiterate fathers was higher than that of street children of literate fathers. Migration rate of street children of illiterate mothers was higher than that of street children of literate mothers.