THE RELATIONSHIP OF EAR CLEANING USING COTTON BUDS WITH THE EVENT OF EAR COMPLAINTS (IN FACULTY MEDICINE STUDENTS OF UNJANI BATCH 2019) Asti Kristianti (a*), Siska Telly Pratiwi (b*), Nadya Safira (c*), Nurbaiti Nazarudin (a*)
a) Otorhinolaryngology Departement, Faculty of Medicine, Jenderal Achmad Yani University, Cimahi, Indonesia
b) Microbiology Departement, Faculty of Medicine, Jenderal Achmad Yani University, Cimahi, Indonesia
c) Bachelor of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Jenderal Achmad Yani University, Cimahi, Indonesia
Abstract
Ear cleaning using cotton buds is a risk factor of external ear infections, especially otitis externa which cause various ear complaints such as ear pain, itchy ears, fullness ears, and decreased hearing. This study aims to determine the relationship between ear cleaning using cotton buds and the ear complaints at Students of Medical Faculty Unjani Batch 2019. The population of this study were Students of Medical Faculty Unjani Batch 2019 who did ear cleaning using cotton buds with ear complaints fulfill the inclusion criteria. This was an analytical research with cross sectional. The data was collected with the hypothesis test formula of two different proportions of two groups with a minimum number of respondents were 30 respondents. Sampling was done by consecutive sampling techniques. The instrument used in this study was questionnaire. The data was analyzed with univariate and bivariate. The characteristics of respondents who use cotton buds to clean their ears are female rather than male (83.33%). In cleaning ears, respondents mostly used cotton buds, which caused complaints of itchy ears (45.28%), ear pain (33.96%), fullness ears (18.87%), and decreased hearing (1.89%). From the study, there was a significant relation between ear cleaning using cotton buds and the incidence of ear complaints at Students of Medical Faculty Unjani Batch 2019 with odds ratio 95.28 greater than those who did not use cotton buds. The majority ear complaints are itchy ears that indicate have entered the chronic inflammatory stage of otitis externa.
