CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CHANGES IN QUALITY OF LIFE INDICATORS AS A METHOD FOR ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ENT...

Ear, nose, and throat (ENT) diseases cause major disruption in patients' daily lives. Self-medication with conventional and herbal drugs are common in ENT patients. Recent studies reported that the ENT patients' self-medication with conventional medication ranged from 79.1-83.0%. It is also reported that the rate of herbal drug utilization among ENT patients ranges from 2-63% in different nations. The research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of "Herbanoma" as a Phyto preparation for ENT diseases according to the prognostic clinical significance of changes in quality-of-life parameters. The study employed the stratified sampling technique to randomly select participants. Five secondary schools of Yerevan were chosen through random selection, followed by the selection of 236 observation units from the selected schools. For the treatment and prevention of diseases of the upper respiratory tract, we used the herbal inhalation mixture "Herbaroma" as an ingredient. The composition of these drops is approved by the Intellectual Property Agency of the Republic of Armenia. SF-36 questionnaire was used to assess the quality of life of adolescents aged 15-17 years who had ENT diseases. The change of the parameters of QL in the experimental group had the greatest clinical significance for the components RP, RE, SF, and Mental Health - MH. The effectiveness of the preventive program was also evaluated according to the main groups of ENT diseases. The clinical significance of the effectiveness of the program for chronic diseases of the nasal cavities was significantly high for almost all components of the quality of life, in particular: Physical health - PH, Mental Health - MH. The program had great effectiveness for this group of ENT diseases. The clinical significance of the effectiveness of prevention programs for chronic inflammatory diseases of the throat was significantly high for the following components of the quality of life: RP, GH, PH, MH. The program has been highly effective for this group of ENT diseases. The clinical significance of the effectiveness of the prevention of chronic inflammatory diseases of the ear was generally assessed as weak. It had reliable average clinical significance for SF, RE, and MH components. Among school-aged children with ENT pathology, the use of the "Herbaroma" drug for prophylactic purposes leads to an improvement in quality-of-life parameters. According to the results of the research, the "Herbaroma" drug had an anti-inflammatory, antiseptic effect, contributed to the reduction of the incidence of acute respiratory viral infections, and the prevention of complications. The use of the relatively safe and effective "Herbaroma" preparation in school conditions should be included in the comprehensive program of preventive measures.