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CHRONIC SUPPURATIVE OTITIS MEDIA IN SCHOOL PUPILS IN NIGERIA

F.E. OLOGE, C.C. NWAWOLO

Abstract


ABSTRACT
Objective: To compare the prevalence of CSOM among two population of school children.
Design: A survey-demographic data collection and otoscopy - was carried out among
the two populations of school children.
Setting: A rural government primary school and an urban private primary school
Participants: Six hundred and ninety nine school pupils in the rural school and two
hundred and seventy pupils in the urban school.
Results: Six percent (6%) of the pupils in the rural schools had CSOM as evidenced
by persistent perforation of tympanic membrane of more than three months duration.
No tympanic membrane perforations were observed in the children in the urban school
at the time of this study. The difference in the prevalence of CSOM between the two
populations is statistically significant (P<0.001).
The difference in socio-economic status between the two populations is statistically
significant in relation to the prevalence of CSOM in the two populations. The poorer
rural population had a significantly higher prevalence of CSOM (P<0.001).
Conclusion: The two study populations are just 7km. apart geographically but there
is a world of difference in their socio-economic status, availability of social infrastructure
and health facilities. This presumably had reflected in the marked difference in the
prevalence of CSOM between the two study populations. A collective effort of
government and well meaning indigenes of rural communities in Nigeria can help
promote the socio-economic status and enhance the availability of social infrastructure
and health facilities of rural areas. This we hope will lead to a decline in the prevalence
of CSOM in the rural areas.

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The East African Medical Journal is published monthly by Kenya Medical Association.

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