Awareness And Abuse Of Ototoxic Drugs Among Health Professionals In Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti

Background of study—The challenge of hearing loss is global but worse in Africa. It heavily weighs adversely on the national economy, occupational productivity and social integration on the Individual and family affected and on the community and society at large. Injury to the ear which may lead to hearing loss have been attributed to many factors, one of the major factors, being drugs that are injurious to the ear commonly called ototoxic drugs. Other damaging factors are infections, noise, genetics and metabolic systemic diseases. The menace of ototoxic drugs is devastating in Africa because there is no legislation yet against these drugs hence they are still easily purchased without medical prescription. There are over 200 known ototoxic medications (both prescribe drugs and over-the-counter) in the market today. This study was therefore aimed at assessing awareness and abuse of ototoxic drug among health care professionals in a federal teaching hospital in Nigeria as a preliminary study to comprehensive solution to the challenges of hearing loss in Nigeria. Methodology—A descriptive cross-sectional quantitative study with purposive sampling technique was used as the research design which is aimed at determining the awareness and abuse of ototoxic drugs among health professionals in a Federal Teaching Hospital A sample size of 365 participants was calculated for the research study but only 191 persons participated in the study comprising of 111 nurses, 47 doctors, 33 pharmacists. Semi- structured questionnaires were administered to the target group; Test-retest method was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS and analysis was done at both univariate and bivariate levels. Result—The findings from the study revealed that there was a high level of awareness of ototoxic drugs among health professionals (94.8%) but prevalence (66.5%) level of ototoxic drug was also high. Majority of the respondent have high level of awareness about ototoxic drugs, therefore use some of the drugs with precaution but it was found however that the prevalence of ototoxic drug was still high and this is found to be attributed to other compelling factors such as reduced price, readily available and shorter medication regime. Findings from the study also revealed that there is a significant relationship between level of education of respondents and their awareness about ototoxic drugs but there is no significant relationship between the profession of respondents and their awareness of ototoxic drug use.