CHRONIC SUPPURATIVE OTITIS MEDIA RISK FACTORS IN OUR SOCIETY

Abstract

Abdul-Razzaq H Alrubaiee* & Ansam Ghazi Abdulwahed@ *CABS, DLO,@MB,ChB. Department of E.N.T Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital Basrah-Iraq. Abstract The prevalence of chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is high worldwide. However, knowledge of associated risk factors is sparse; we report the sociodemographic and clinical risk factors of CSOM in our society in Basrah city with aiming to control the disease and complications; and putting possible preventive strategies. The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of sociodemographic and clinical risk factors for development of CSOM in Basrah city, Iraq. This is questionnaire-based survey included 100 patients having CSOM examined in Al-Sadr Teaching hospital outpatient department (68 females and 32 males), Statistical analysis was done using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program (Version 15.0). The difference between many variables was assessed to be statistically significant, by using tests of significance between two sample proportions. Among those questioned, 33 patients (33%) were children below 14 years of age, 54 patients (54%) came from rural areas, 41 adult patient (61.1%) were either illiterate or just read and write, 20 patients of 14 years old or younger (60.6%) had mothers who were illiterate and 8 patients of this age group (24.2%) had mothers who could just read and write, 83 patients (83%) had low income, 51 patients (51%) of patients lived in congested (crowded) houses of 10 people or more, 44 patients (44%) were passive smokers, 55 patients (55%) had history of recurrent URI, 28 patients (28%) had history of allergic rhinitis and 18 patients (18%) had history of adenoid, 76 patients (76%) had onset of the disease at childhood, of whom 20 patients (20%) had age of onset below 6 months of age. The prevalence of CSOM was significant in age group below 14 years. With P value 0.017. Residency and feeding history were found to be not significant risk factors for development of CSOM, with P value of 0.427 and 0.394 respectively. Income was highly significant risk factor, P value 0.000. Family size of 10 and more was significant risk factor for development of CSOM with P value of 0.041. Clinical risk factors like history of URI, Allergic rhinitis and adenoid were found not significant risk factors. In conclusion, Important risk factors for development of CSOM included sociodemographic factors like education level, income, congested (crowded) house with 10 and more people, presence of a smoker in the house hold, and early age of onset. Residency whether urban or rural did not have influence upon prevalence of CSOM, so did bottle feeding. Clinical risk factors like history of URI, allergic rhinitis and adenoid were found not significantly associated with the disease. The greater impact would be to sociodemographic risk factors on development of CSOM in our society.