Assessment of morbidity profile in urban slum community of Udaipur (Rajasthan).

Background: The urban slums has diversity, but the universal characteristics refer to overcrowding and congestion, lack of hygiene, extremely poor sanitation, lack of garbage disposal facilities, high density of insects and rodents, makes the dwellers more prone to morbidity. Objectives: To study morbidity profile in urban slum dwellers. Methods: Cross sectional study had been carried out between January 2014 to July 2014 on slum dwellers of Udaipur. Information obtained by interviewing the head and/or other family members of about 76 households. Results: The morbidity rate for both sexes was 33.0%. About 31.2% males and 34.6% females were either suffering from or have a history of one or more illness within previous two weeks. Anemia was found in 11.2% of females. Respiratory tract infections and diarrhea were present in 8.8% and 2.1% of studied population respectively. Among five years above age slum dwellers, 18.9%, 38.3% and 31.2% had a habit of smoking, tobacco chewing and alcohol intake respectively. Conclusions: Slum dwellers were unaware of the effective information on hygiene, health and substance use, education, communication activities along with effective health care delivery measures needed.