Hearing loss among inmates of a juvenile correctional facility in Nigeria.

Background: Good hearing is essential to learning and rehabilitation of adolescent and young adults in juvenile correctional facilities. Hearing screening programme is not commonly in place for this incarcerated group. Objective: To evaluate hearing threshold among inmates of a juvenile correctional facility in Nigeria and compare pattern of hearing loss with a control group. Methods: A total of 135 inmates and equal number of age and sex matched control responded to interviewer-administered questionnaire followed by otoscopy and audiometry. Results: Mean age of inmates was 19 years ±2.0, while that of control was 18yrs ± 2.5. (p-value 0.077). Four (3%) inmates had bleeding from the ear; otoscopy revealed traumatic tympanic membrane perforation in 2(1.5%) of them. Prevalence of hearing loss was 19.2% and for disabling hearing loss it was 1.4%. Conductive hearing loss was the most common 33(24.4%). Inmates had consistently worse mean hearing thresholds than controls across all frequencies tested in both ears (p-value <0.001). Conclusion: Hearing loss is prevalent among inmates of juvenile correctional facility. Rehabilitation programme should be balanced with detail attention to health needs of inmates; including pre-admission and periodic hearing screening.

Symptom score for allergic rhinitis.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of allergic rhinitis in our study population and the correlation between the Score for Allergic Rhinitis (SFAR) and nasal smear eosinophil count. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Ear, nose, and throat clinic, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria; a 450-bed tertiary health facility. SUBJECTS: Two hundred seventy-five consecutive, consenting patients who presented with nasal symptoms. METHODS: Information on the 8-parameter symptom score was collected using a semistructured questionnaire by interview. Nasal smear slides were air dried, fixed with 95% alcohol, stained using May-Grünwald-Giemsa stain, and examined under a light microscope. RESULTS: Of the 275 participants seen during the 1-year study, 116 (42.2%) were males. The mean ± SD age was 38.5 ± 16.3 (range, 14-75) years. Eighty-one (29.5%) were diagnosed with allergic rhinitis using a nasal smear eosinophil count. The most common symptom was excessive sneezing, involving 93% of patients with allergic rhinitis (P < .001). The prevalence of allergic rhinitis using SFAR was 31.6%. The SFAR cutoff was set at >8 (P < .001). The sensitivity and specificity for SFAR were 94.8% (confidence interval [CI], 90.5%-97.4%) and 95.1% (CI, 87.2%-98.4%), respectively. A high Spearman's correlation (0.88) was obtained for SFAR when correlated with nasal smear eosinophil count. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of allergic rhinitis using SFAR was 31.6%. The study shows that SFAR can be used as a simple, valid diagnostic tool in allergic rhinitis. This is important in rural settings where access to laboratory investigations might not be readily available.