Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients at screening for an international collaborative free paediatric surgical outreach in Sagamu, Nigeria

What is known about the subject? • Free surgical outreaches are common in low/middle income countries and targeted at people of low socioeconomic class. • The effective means of disseminating information about these outreaches have not been documented. • Most of the outreach surgeries are done on day-case basis but it is not certain if patients meet the criteria for day-case surgery. What this study contributes • All socio-economic classes have need for free paediatric surgical outreaches in LMIC with 24.2 % being of the upper classes. • Social media is a viable means of publicity for surgical outreaches among 42 % of respondents in LMIC. • Majority of patients fulfil socio-demographic requirements for day-case surgery. Free surgical outreaches are important in low/middle socio-economic communities due to financial constraint and poor health insurance coverage. Understanding socio-demographic characteristics of outreach patients will aid program sponsors in design, planning and execution. This study obtained data to categorize participants into socio-economic, demographic and clinical strata. Descriptive cross-sectional study of patients at screening for a free surgical outreach in Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu, Nigeria. Relevant socio-demographic and clinical details were obtained. Frequency and distribution of baseline characteristics were derived. Chi-square, t -test and multinomial logistic regression model were used to test association between socio-demographic characteristics and other domains with probability values ( p ) < 0.05 considered significant. Sources of information about the outreach were through social media, indirect means (relatives, work colleagues etc.), religious organizations, hospital referral and mainstream media in 42.7 %, 40.4 %, 8.5 %, 7.7 %, and 0.8 % respectively. Regarding socio-economic classes, 16.9 %, 7.3 %, 45.8 %, and 30.0 % of the participants were in the upper, upper-middle, lower-middle, and lower classes respectively. There was average delay in presentation of 59.65 ± 56.205 months with financial constraints being the major reason (44.9 %). Among respondents, 41.3 % resided within 60km. However, 82.9 % of those farther away possessed smart phones for early postoperative teleconsultation. Only 9.2 % of respondents would immediately opt for paid treatment if screened out. Social media is a viable means of publicity for surgical outreaches in LMIC. All socio-economic classes have need for free paediatric surgical outreaches but the lower and lower-middle classes are most predominant. Regular collaborative outreaches of this nature may help to mitigate delays in treatment of some surgical conditions in children occasioned by financial constraints. Level 4.