DOI: 10.36347/sasjm

Pages: 244-250

Primary Ear and Hearing Care (PEHC) is an initiative aimed at reducing the burden of hearing loss and ear diseases. The initiative aims at extending PEHC into all regions that need it, devising global level guidelines with training packages and materials that can be adapted to regional and national needs, linking Primary Ear and Hearing Care with strategies for prevention as part of Primary Health Care (PHC), and encouraging PEHC guidelines to be a component of each national plan for prevention and control of diseases. Unfortunately, despite its development more than 20 years ago and the increasing challenges of ear and hearing diseases, PEHC has not been implemented in most World Health Organization member countries including Nigeria. This pilot study is a survey to investigate the perceptions and practices of PEHC among ear-care professionals in Nigeria. Most respondents (64.5%) knew about PEHC but a lower proportion (30.3%) knew of the World Health Organization PEHC training manuals Even fewer (13.2%) had ever read the manuals or used them (5.3%).