EVALUATION OF OROFACIAL CLEFT COMMUNITY AWARENESS STRATEGIES USED IN A TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN NIGERIA.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of our awareness campaign strategies and identify the most effective strategy for our environment.

Design: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study using a 15-item intervieweradministered questionnaire.

Setting: The orofacial cleft clinic of a tertiary health institution in Lagos, Nigeria.

Participants: The sample population was all consenting parents and adult patients attending the orofacial cleft clinic within the study period.

Main outcome measures: The primary outcome measures was the percentage contribution of the various outreach modalities to the source of referral to the clinic.

Results: A total of 107 respondents were recorded in this study. Forty-six percent of the respondents received information about the availability of treatment and referrals from the maternity centers where the child was delivered (45.8%, n = 49), while the media campaign contributed 13.1% to our patient referrals. Seventy percent (n = 75) of the participants lived within the state of Lagos. Eighty-five percent (n=91) utilized public transport for clinic visits. The median approximate distance travelled from their home to the clinic was 23 (IQR 11-42) km, with a range of 1.5-988 km. The median approximate cost of public transportation to the clinic from their homes was 2000 (IQR 1500-4375) Naira (~ 4 USD), with a range of 200-120,000 Naira (~ 0.4-250 USD) per visit.

Conclusion: The results of this study show that campaigns focused on maternity homes and peripheral hospitals appear to be the most effective strategy and the single largest source of referrals to our cleft care programme.