Child and adolescent-headed households in Oicha, North Kivu Province (Congo): sociomedical implications

Background : The phenomenon of children/youth head of household has become common globally. If their their expressions are quite similar despite the environment in which they occur, they vary in causes which can be chronically ill parents, death of parents or parent s moving seasonally to fields. However, the literature is scarce on the children/youth head of household in Congo and also the displacement to fields as a cause of child headed household is new in the literature. Hence the purpose of this study is to descr ibe the conditions of the head of household children whose parents have moved to the fields. Methods : Cross - sectional study of 181 households headed by children selected by convenience was conducted in Oicha and a questionnaire was administered. Results : Children are facing medical(pregnancy, sexual assault/ sexual abuse, and diseases of children at night), social (debts in the neighborhood, and division of labor, and indiscipline), and educational (school dropout due to hunting of school fees, etc.) pro blems . Conclusion : the medical, sexual, educational data challenges their implications are (in practice, research and health policy) were given.