Childhood hearing loss; a need for primary health care.

INTRODUCTION: Essential health care for children is the care of the ear. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study of 155 children with hearing loss. RESULTS: A total of 155 pupils with hearing impairment and their parents were interviewed; 77(49.7%) males and 78(50.3%) females, age ranged from 6 to 15years (mean 9.11 ± 2.5 years). None of the participants had neonatal hearing screening. Parents detected the hearing loss at a mean age of 2.3 ± 1.1years. Initial care was given by community health workers and general medical practitioners, only 21 participants had otolaryngological consultation and none had audiological rehabilitation. Barriers to accessing services were financial constraints, poor awareness and non-availability of otolaryngological service for the hearing impaired in the communities. CONCLUSION: Hearing impaired children in Nigeria have poor access to ear care. There is a need to create awareness of otological services and incorporate ear-care into the primary health care.

Profile of pediatric traditional uvulectomy in North-West Nigeria: The need for caution and education.

OBJECTIVES: The study assessed the prevalence of complications associated with traditional uvulectomy and identified factors associated with favorable outcome after management in a pediatric population in North-Western Nigeria. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out at the accident and emergency section as well as at the otolaryngology out-patient clinic of the Federal Medical Centre, Birnin-Kebbi, Nigeria. METHODS: Patients with traditional uvulectomy complications were recruited on consecutive basis and sample size was dependent on the patients seen over the study period. This was done over a 6 month study period (January 2014-June 2014). RESULTS: A total of forty one participants, all within the paediatric age group (<15 years) participated in this study. The age of the participants ranged from 2 to 13 years while the mean age was 6.17 years ± 2.47. The ≤5 year age group constituted about 44% of the children studied. Gender distribution noted a slight male preponderance (Male: Female ratio = 1.05: 1). A total of 58.8% of the participants were fully immunized, while the Haemoglobin concentration status (packed cell volume) at hospital presentation of <10 g/dl (<30%) occurred in 34.1% of the participants of the study. The duration of hospital stay in pediatric patients with post-traditional uvulectomy complications was significantly associated with the maternal immunization status (p = 0.007). Also, subjects with completed maternal immunization status had about 0.1 times odds (CI = 0.19-0.64) likelihood to have a prolonged hospital stay when compared with subjects whose mothers were partially immunized or not immunized at all. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: In conclusion, this study found that favorable outcome post-traditional uvulectomy is related to early presentation and maternal immunization status, but adversely affected by anemia. Traditional uvulectomy remains a cultural practice that should be discouraged using both advocacy and legislative measures.