Healthcare-seeking behaviour of primary caregivers for acute otitis media in children aged 6 months to <30 months in Panama: results of a cross-sectional survey

Table 1 Characteristics of primary caregivers enrolled in the study

Characteristics of primary caregiver	Categories	Value or proportion (%)^a
Total enrolled participants		N = 1330
Age (years)	Mean (SD)	28.5 (7.98)
Age (years)	Range	18–67
Gender	Male	69/1324 (5.2)
	Female	1255/1324 (94.8)
	Missing	6
Highest education level	Less than University^b	873/1330 (65.6)
Highest education level	University	457/1330 (34.4)
Occupation	Housewife	725/1330 (54.5)
	Student	30/1330 (2.3)
	Employed part-time	71/1330 (5.3)
	Employed full-time	477/1330 (35.9)
	Unemployed	13/1330 (1.0)
	Retired	1/1330 (0.1)
	Other	13/1330 (1.0)
Number of children	1	586/1329 (44.1)
	2	443/1329 (33.3)
	3	191/1329 (14.4)
	>3	109/1329 (8.2)
	Missing	1
Public/private status	Public	1150/1330 (86.5)
Public/private status	Private	180/1330 (13.5)
Trial/non-trial status	Trial	826/1330 (62.1)
Trial/non-trial status	Non-trial	504/1330 (37.9)
Primary caregivers whose child had a suspected AOM episode		N = 245
Household members^c	Other children <5 years old [median (min-max)]	1 (0–8)^d
	Children 5–18 [median (min-max)]	1 (0–7)
	Adults >18 years old [median (min-max)]	2 (0–10)
Overall income/month (US$)^c	<400	64/244 (26.2)
	400–999	86/244 (35.2)
	1000–1999	48/244 (19.7)
	>2000	12/244 (4.9)
	Unknown/prefer not to answer	34/244 (13.9)
	Missing	1
Medical insurance^c	Public	119/238 (50.0)
	Private	2/238 (0.8)
	Public and private	10/238 (4.2)
	No	107/238 (45.0)
	Missing	7
Day-care attendance^c	Yes	22/244 (9.1)
	No	222/244 (91.0)
	Missing	1
Relationship to child^c	Parent	228/243 (93.8)
	Grandparent	8/243 (3.3)
	Other relative	7/243 (2.9)
	Missing	2
Regular visit to doctor^c	Yes	127/244 (52.0)
	No	117/244 (48.0)
	Missing	1

AOM acute otitis media, N total number of participants in ATP cohort or participants whose child had a suspected AOM episode, Value value of the considered parameter, Proportion (%) proportion (percentage) of participants in a given category, SD standard deviation
^aProportions for each response category do not include missing responses
^bLess than University includes No School, Primary School, Secondary School and Vocational School
^cThese variables are defined only for the participants whose child had a suspected AOM episode
^dThe question used to collect information about household members < 5 years may have been misinterpreted and some of the caregivers may have included the child for which symptoms where described into their counting

ISSN: 1471-2431