Childhood Hearing Impairment: How Do Parents Feel About It?

Background Hearing impairment or deafness is a major disabling condition worldwide. Etiology of the hearing loss   range from congenital to acquired, and includes common and preventable childhood infections like otitis  media and meningoencephalitis. Morbidity and burden of hearing impairment on the children and their parents is enormous. This is because affected children have developmental delay in many domains  including speech, cognition as well as behavioural and other aspects of psychosocial development. Early  identification and effective treatment of hearing loss improves language, other forms of communication, and cognitive skills. This study was carried out to evaluate and ascertain the  perception and attitude of parents of children with hearing impairment. Material  and Method This was a questionnaire based  study of parents' perception and attitude about children with hearing impairment in the PortHarcourt metropolis from pt June 2011 to 31"t May2012.Results Thirty seven parents of children with hearing impairment were studied. The parents demonstrated different attitudes towards the children. Majority, 34(94.59%) of them felt sad, others  expressed anger. Twenty seven (72.97%) felt hearing loss was due to punishment from the "gods" for an evil deed by a family member. The attitude and feelings of parents included sadness, self blame and  anger. Parents also believe that immediate cause is spiritual.ConclusionThe public should be enlightened about common preventable causes so as to correct all negative attitudes about hearing loss I impairment.Keyword: Hearing impairment; children; parents; perception and attitude

Childhood Asthma: A Clinical Study in Southern Nigeria

Background: Childhood bronchial asthma is a major cause of chronic respiratory morbidity and mortality and its worldwide prevalence has been noted to be on the increase. This study determines the hospital prevalence and severity of childhood asthma and some associated risk factors.Methods: A cross - sectional hospital I questionnaire - based study carried out on Paediatrics patients attending the respiratory clinic of the University Teaching Hospital from 1st July to 31st December 2018, using a questionnaire.Results: The hospital prevalence of childhood asthma was 1.2% (40/8818) with a male to female ratio of 8.4:1. The mean age at onset of symptoms of asthma was 4.24 ± 8.86 years. The most common recognized trigger factor for exacerbation of asthmatic symptoms was extreme cold seen in 29 (72.5%) patients, while the most common identified early childhood risk factor for development of asthma was a positive family history of asthma in 21 (52.5%) patients. Thirty five of the subjects (87.5%) had mild intermittent asthma. More males than female (p = 0.689) and more adolescents than children under ten years (p = 0.117) had persistent asthma. Males had a significantly higher frequency of asthma - related hospital admissions (p = 0.028).Conclusion: The low prevalence of asthma of 1.2% seen in this study may be due to the hospital - based nature of the study that may be a poor representation of the prevalence of childhood asthma in the community. The male preponderance and increased frequency of hospital admissions among the males is similar to findings of other studies.Keywords: Asthma, Childhood, Nigeria, School Absenteeis