Factors Associated with Residential Mobility of Street Children in Uganda: Implications for Urban Health Policy and Programming.

Francis Mulekya Bwambale, MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY, CAPHRI / IOM/ MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
Cheryl A. Moyer, University of Michigan
Paul Bukuluki, Makerere University
Hubertus Van den Borne, MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY, CAPHRI

Mobility is a known social determinant of health and healthcare. We investigated factors associated with residential mobility patterns among street children in Kampala City, Uganda. Residential and mobility history was obtained for 513 street children aged 12-24 years between April and May 2019. Residential mobility was defined as the number of places stayed in since migrating to the city. Overall, two-thirds (66.82%) of children had moved to the city in the last 2 years, 20% in the last 3-5 years and 13.18% in at least 6 years. More than half (54.35%) had lived in at least two places since migrating to the City. Multivariate analysis indicated residential mobility to be associated with health service uptake, duration of stay, household size and daily income. These results suggest that urban policies and planning of health services should take into account patterns of residential mobility of the street children and other floating populations