Nutrition Status of Adolescent Street Children 10-17 Years in Nairobi City Central Business District, Kenya

In Kenya, 15,347 adolescents are street inhabitants, and approximately 5,046 of them are in the streets of Nairobi. However, research on the nutrition status of adolescent street children is very limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the nutrition status of adolescent street children 10-17 years in Nairobi. A descriptive and analytic cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 248 participants (89 females and 159 males) selected through cluster sampling. Data was collected using anthropometric tools, interviewer-administered questionnaires, and a focus group discussion. Anthropometric data was analysed using WHO AnthroPlus software, while quantitative data from the questionnaire was analysed using SPSS version 25. A few of the respondents were malnourished as 3.2% had severe thinness, 8.1% had thinness, 4.8% were overweight, 7.7% were stunted, and 2.8% were severely stunted. The rate of thinness in the respondents was more than the acceptable levels of wasting recommended by WHO in developing countries (<2%). The cases of under-nutrition were more in adolescent street males than adolescent street females. Key words: Nutrition Status, Adolescent Street Children