Childhood otitis media: Relationship with daycare attendance, harsh parenting, and maternal mental health

Abstract

Psychological stress has been linked to developmental problems and poor health in children, but it is unclear whether it is also related to otitis media (OM). As part of a long-term study surveying the characteristics of childcare and development in Taiwan, we analyzed the relationship between OM and sources of psychological stress in children, such as poor maternal mental health and harsh parental discipline. We analyzed the data of 1998 children from the “Kids in Taiwan: National Longitudinal Study of Child Development & Care (KIT) Project” at the age of 3 years. Using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models, we tested several risk factors as potential independent predictors of two outcomes: parent-reported incidence of OM and child health. The proportion of children who had developed OM in the first 3 years of their life was 12.5%. Daycare attendance (odds ratio [OR]: 1.475; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.063–2.046), poor maternal mental health (OR: 1.913; 95% CI: 1.315–2.784), and harsh parental discipline (OR: 1.091; 95% CI: 1.025–1.161) correlated with parent-reported occurrence of OM. These findings suggest that providing psychosocial support to both parents and children might be a novel strategy for preventing OM.

Association between maternal insecticide use and otitis media in one-year-old children in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study

“…In our analysis presenting at Tables 2 and 3 , living with older siblings, the history of maternal chronic OM, and daycare attendance increased the incidence of OM. Thus, our results were consistent with the findings of the previous studies 5 , 25 , 26 .…”

Bacterial Spectrum of Spontaneously Ruptured Otitis Media in a 7-Year, Longitudinal, Multicenter, Epidemiological Cross-Sectional Study in Germany

“…Smoking was associated with AOM from S. pneumoniae and remains an important risk factor in pediatric pneumococcal disease. Our study corroborates previous findings that the presence of siblings in the household is common in children with AOM, as well as having siblings in daycare ( 37 – 40 ).…”

Parental separation risk before and after the diagnosis of a child physical health condition

“…Previous studies have reported elevated stress among parents of children with severe conditions, such as diabetes (Van Gampelaere et al 2020), epilepsy (Operto et al 2021), inflammatory bowel disease (Diederen et al 2018), rheumatoid arthritis (Cousino and Hazen 2013), and cancer (Rodriguez et al 2012); but also among parents of children with less severe conditions, such as allergies (Jung et al 2023), atopic dermatitis (Meltzer and Moore 2008), and chronic ear infections (Chen et al 2019). A meta-analysis of various child health conditions and their associations with global parenting stress showed clear differences in the strength of the correlations (Pinquart 2018).…”