Prevalence of Ear and Nasal Diseases in Bangladeshi Patients

Background: The magnitude of health problems related to ear and nose in Bangladesh has not been estimated in a larger scale and very little is known about the prevalence and types of ENT diseases. Commonest cause of hearing impairment in our country is middle ear infection. Conductive type of deafness mostly occurs due to otitis media with or without its complications. Goal of primary health eare services is to achieve "Sound hearing by 2030" will never be achieved if we could not find out possible association of middle ear disease with other health conditions. Objective: To determine the prevalence of ear and nasal diseases in Bangladeshi patients. Methods: Two hundred patients complaining of middle ear discharge and or nasal symptoms were included in this study, to see the association of COM with nasal disorders. This cross sectional study was conducted in Dhaka Medical College Hospital from July 2012 to June 2014.Sample was taken by purposive sampling. Sample was divided into four groups as exposed and diseased, exposed and not diseased, not exposed diseased and not exposed and not diseased. Results: Two hundred patients were studied in the department of ENT and Head Neck Surgery of Dhaka Medical College Hospital complaining of either COM or Sinonasal disease. Among them 107 were female and 93 were male and male female ratio was 1:1.15. On analyzing age distribution it was ranging from 10 years to 50 years with mean age 30±7.86% clustering around 25 years. This study revealed that 65 % of COM is in the age group of 10-30 years. Conclusion: A study on the prevalence of the Ear Nose throat and Head and Neck diseases in developing country like Bangladesh can provide basic data which can be relevant and beneficial to the development of medical ENT curriculum in the regional setup and subsequent medical practice.