title: A comparative study of common ear morbidity pattern among the primary school children of an urban slum of Kolkata and rural area of Hooghly.
abstract: A cross-sectional, clinical and epidemiological study was undertaken among 627 primary school children (rural 145, urban 482) to compare the common ear morbidity pattern between an urban slum of kolkata and a rural area of Hooghly. Middle ear pathology was found to be present in 20% and 12.6% among rural and urban students respectively. Cerumen in the external auditory canal was the commonest clinical finding in both the areas and was found to be present in 35.86% of rural and 30.70% of urban population respectively. Smoke nuisance, bathing in open ponds and overcrowding were some of the predisposing factors causing ear diseases, like chronic suppurative otitis media and serous otitis media.
authors.affiliation: Department of ENT, IPGME&R, SSKM Hospital, Kolkata.
authors.forename: Raktim
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bandyopadhyay
authors.forename: Arunabha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sengupta
authors.forename: Aparajita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dasgupta
authors.forename: Romy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.forename: Sujishnu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.forename: Akhil Bandhu
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Biswas
mesh_terms: D002571:Cerumen; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004427:Ear Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data