Assessment of Ear Nose and Throat morbidities prevalent in the school going children aged 5-14 years in rural area of Jamnagar

• Main Authors: Viral Shah, Nitin Lodha, Beena Patel, Hetal Koringa, Mehul Patel, Neha Bhatnagar, Dipesh Parmar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amber Publication 2014-12-01
• Series: Journal of Research in Medical and Dental Science
• Subjects: Ear Nose and Throat morbidity; school children; health seeking behavior
• Online Access: https://www.jrmds.in/articles/assessment-of-ear-nose-and-throat-morbidities-prevalent-in-the-school-going-children-aged-514-years-in-rural-area-of-jam.pdf
• ISSN: 2347-2545; 2347-2367

Background: India is home to more than 400 million children forming about 35% of its total population. Upper respiratory tract infections predispose a child to complications such as otitis media, tonsillitis, and sinusitis that further contribute to morbidity leading to hearing impairment and learning disability & even RHD. Unfortunately these morbidities are either not detected or remain untreated making situation worse. Aims and objectives:1. To assess the prevalence of common Ear Nose and Throat symptoms among children aged 5-14 years and to study its relationship with socio-demographic factors 2. To know regarding health seeking behavior in relations to Ear Nose and Throat morbidities. Materials and method: A cross-sectional study was done over a period of 2 months among 300 school children aged 5-14 years of six government schools of Jamnagar district. Assessment was done through clinical examination and oral questioners. Results: Prevalence of Ear Nose and Throat morbidity was 46.66%; Ear (14.33%), Nose(28.66%) and Throat(10%).Common Ear Nose and Throat problems were– common cold(23%), cough(9.67%), sore throat(8.34%) and ear ache(8.67%). Associations of Ear Nose and Throat morbidity with age and religion were statistically significant. Only 31.40% of children had taken treatment for the problems. Mother’s education had statistically significant association on health seeking behavior of school children. Conclusion: Prevalence of Ear Nose and Throat morbidity was very high among school children, only 1/3 children had taken treatment, indicating negligence towards problems on the part of parents as well as teachers suggesting strong need for sensitization of parents and teachers.