Assessment Of Public Health Status And Living Conditions Of Residents In Urban Slums

This study was evaluated public health status and living conditions of residents in urban slums in Nigeria (A case study of Lagos State). The study specifically examined the causes of urban slum growth in Nigeria, assessed how urban slums affect the public health status of residents in Nigeria and examined how urban slums affect the living conditions of residents in Nigeria. The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprise of residents of urban slums in Lagos State. In determining the sample size, the researcher conveniently selected 261 respondents and 259 were validated. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validated questionnaires were analyzed using frequency tables and mean scores. The result of the findings reveals that the causes of urban slum growth in Nigeria include inaccessibility of land in the core of urban areas, poverty, housing deficit, poor housing policies and lack of adequate repair and maintenance of existing structures in urban centres. Therefore, the study recommended that there should be intense collaboration between federal, state and local governments in the areas of a) easing acquisition of land by putting in place mechanisms that will regulate the excesses of landowners and b) provision of massive and relatively low cost housing units for all which can be achieved through a continuous public-private partnership at all levels of government.