Assessment of epidemioiogical profile of various ent diseases in school going children and the trends of seeking healthcare in Shangla valley

Objective: to evaluate the epidemiological profile of various ent diseases in school going children and trends of seeking healthcare i.e consulting ent specialist,general physicians and quacks in shangla valley. methodology: this was a cross-sectional descriptive study. the study was carried out in district shangla,khyber pakhtunkhwa in may-july 2014. the author visited eight schools in the district shangla and carried out thorough ent examination of the students and took relevant history to find out the prevalence of various oto-rhino-laryngological diseases in the school going children. students of the eight schools of shangla valley with age between 5 to 16 years were included in the study. the students,who were found to be suffering from ent diseases,were also asked whether they have consulted any physician,oto-rhino-laryngologist (ent specialist) or any quack for the subject purpose. simple descriptive statistics were used to describe frequencies and percentages. results: total 2882 students were examined in the eight schools. ear wax was found in 769 (26.7%) cases. 11 (1.4%) of ear wax cases had consulted an ent specialist,37(4.8%) had consulted general physician and 71 (9.2%) went to see quacks. second common ent condition encountered was rhinosinusitis,which was seen in 11.6% of school children. 4 (1.2%) of rhinosinusitis patients had consulted ent specialist,35(10.4%) had seen general physicians and 69(20.5%) had gone to quacks for treatment. conclusion: oto-rhino-laryngological (ent) diseases are considerable burden and important health problem in school going children of shangla valley. currently trend of consulting quacks is highest,followed by physicians and ent specialists. © 2016,postgraduate medical institute. all rights reserved.