International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | August 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 8 Page 3298 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Samaddar S et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019 Aug;6(8):3298-3302 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Formal education about hygienic aural care and the relationship between aural hygiene awareness and practices: a cross-sectional study from a super-speciality hospital in West Bengal, India Saikat Samaddar 1 , Arup Chakraborty 2 *, Sangita Bhattacharya Samaddar 3 , Arista Lahiri 2 , Saumendra Nath Bandyopadhyay 4 INTRODUCTION The word “hygiene” is derived from Hygeia, the goddess of health in Greek mythology. Hygiene is defined as “the science of health and embraces all factors which contribute to healthful living”. 1 Hygienic practices is a key to health. Otolaryngology has expanded beyond horizon. New generation otolaryngology practice has brought cure to the incurable. But extensive search across standard otolaryngology text book does not yield the definition of aural hygiene. Neither there are any proper guidelines to the practice of hygienic ear care behaviours. This leads to lack of information among the physicians and health care providers at various tiers. Compounding to this is the social beliefs, customs, poor literacy and ABSTRACT Background: The result of poor ear care and hygiene behaviours are often encountered in otology practice. There is also lack of any proper guideline of hygienic ear care behaviours. The present study aims to assess the awareness and practice of hygienic ear care behaviours of the community, in the light of the guidelines as per WHO Primary Ear and Hearing Care Training Resources-Basic level. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at Baruipur Sub-Divisional Hospital serving semi urban population of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India. Patients and parents (in case of children below the age of six years) were interviewed. Maintaining the inclusion and exclusion criteria after obtaining informed consent 480 participants were included in the study who responded to a validated self-reported semi structured questionnaire. Results: The mean age was 32.44 (±18.95) years. Around 51.3% were male, 81.25% were professionals. Majority belonged to nuclear family (52.083%) and Islam (53.333%). Around 88.958% of the population had practice of ear care behaviour which was poor. Joint family had an odds of 2.86 (p value=0.002) and Islam by religion had an odds of 1.99 (p value=0.044) for a higher level of awareness. Educated group had an odds of 4.07 (p<0.001) for higher awareness. Aware group had an odds of 19.95 (p<0.001) in favour of having hygienic ear care practices. Conclusions: The study demonstrated lack of formal education regarding ear hygiene at the community level. Dearth in formal knowledge leading to poor practices is compounded with several socio-cultural issues. Keywords: Aural hygiene, Aural care, Awareness, Formal education, Practices 1 Department of ENT, Purulia Government Medical College and Hospital, Purulia, West Bengal, India 2 Department of Community Medicine, Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India 3 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Purulia Government Medical College and Hospital, Purulia, West Bengal, India 4 Department of ENT, Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Received: 18 May 2019 Revised: 16 July 2019 Accepted: 17 July 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Arup Chakraborty, E-mail: dr.arupchakraborty@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20193444