Causes of Delayed Care Seeking for Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media at a Rwandan Tertiary Hospital

Background. Chronic suppurative otitis media causes serious lifelong consequences when treatment is delayed. Early detection and effective treatment result in a good outcome and possible complications are thus avoided. The aim of this study was to determine the factors resulting in delayed care seeking for treatment of CSOM. Method and Patient. The study was a cross-sectional survey conducted at a tertiary teaching hospital in Rwanda. A questionnaire was used to collect data of patients diagnosed with CSOM who attended ENT Department during the study period. We defined delayed care seeking as seeking treatment 6 months after onset of symptoms. Data was entered and analysed using SPSS 16.0. Result. This study enrolled 109 patients, 97 (88.9%) of whom had delays in care seeking. Majority were young adults ranging between 21 and 30 years (39.2%) while 58.8% were rural residents. Fifty-eight patients (56.9%) of those with delayed presentation used traditional medicine. The main reason for delayed care seeking was low knowledge of CSOM reported by 88 (90.7%) patients. Conclusion. This study shows that majority of patients with delayed care seeking are young adult patients. There is low knowledge concerning this disease and this significantly contributes to delayed care seeking.

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