Social-demographic and Health Conditions in Waste Pickers in the City of Cartagena De Indias (Colombia)

The inadequate management of solid waste is widespread in Colombia, the district of Cartagena de Indias is no stranger to the inappropriate integral management of solid waste that, as described above, becomes a risk factor for the health of people, reason for which this research was proposed that aims to diagnose sociodemographic and health conditions in waste pickers in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. 206 recyclers located in 4 recycling points of the city of Cartagena participated during the first period of 2018. By means of two instruments the socio-demographic and health characteristics of the participants were evaluated. The data collected were analyzed using the statistical program SPSS version 24.0, where the descriptive statistics were applied. The average age of the participants was 37 years ± 2 SD, the male sex predominated with 71.4%, with an educational level lower than the basic secondary in 39.7% of the participants. The monthly income of 56.8% of the recyclers is based on a minimum wage in Colombian pesos, and is affiliated in the subsidized health regime. In addition, it was evident that the participants presented nutritional alterations such as obesity and overweight, consumed substances harmful to health such as tobacco 7.3% and liquor 60.8% and presented lumbar pain and headache during the last week. The recyclers of the city of Cartagena, are mostly men of productive age, who belong to the subsidized regime, and who have monthly income of a minimum wage.