Urban Slums Morbidity Spectrum: A Cross Sectional Study on Korogocho Slum, Kenya

Abstract

Community health outreach is part of community-based health care, an extension of facility-based primary care services used to reach the underserved. Slums population in sub-Sahara Africa has been growing by 9 million persons per year making slum occupancy to form more than 56% of urban settlements. A slum is characterized by inadequate access to safe water, inadequate access to sanitation and infrastructure, poor structural quality of housing, overcrowding, and insecure residential status. People in slums due to their environment are more vulnerable to communicable diseases, respiratory diseases, malnutrition and accidents. The main objective was to identify the 10 top most prevalent diseases in Korogocho slums. A cross-sectional study design was applied. Study period was between January 2021 and December 2021. Data was collected through a series of 12 Community health outreach sessions at Korogocho slums in Nairobi, Kenya. Secondary data was extracted and analyzed using SPSS version 25.A total of 3699 individuals were treated, there were more females (67.96%) than males (32.01%) and at least 1 person was identified as a transgender. Age group of 0 to 59 months (472 patients) had more males than females while 19 to 59 years old (1413 patients) females formed majority of Community health outreach attendants. Modal age group was 19 to 59 years among females and 0 to 59 months among males representing 45.28% of the total patients. An average of 308 patients was seen per session. Respiratory tract infections (44.8%), skin diseases (13.8%), abdominal diseases (13.2%), musculoskeletal disorder (7.86%), eye conditions (4.75%), genitourinary diseases (4.18%), ENT diseases (3.9%), hypertension (3.36%), dental problems (2.1%) and wounds and injuries (2.05%) respectively formed the 10 most prevalent diseases in Korogocho slums. Public health intervention of wearing of medical face mask to prevent allergens and airborne infections is highly recommended, prompt and timely treatment of respiratory diseases will help in reducing respiratory related complications. Cost effective and sustainable water treatment options should be availed to the locals to help in improving water quality so as to reduce infective abdominal-diseases.