Seasonal variation in the prevalence of persistent otitis media with effusion in one‐year‐old infants

Abstract

The objective of this population-based cohort study was to evaluate the prevalence of persistent otitis media with effusion (OME) and its seasonal variation in 12-month-old infants. All 30099 infants born in the eastern part of The Netherlands between 1 January 1996 and 1 April 1997 were invited for hearing screening, comprising a protocol of three possible tests. Those who failed all three screening tests were referred to an ENT clinic for examination. Prevalences (i.e. the probability that a child would fail all the screening tests) were calculated by searching for the best logistic model for the first, second and third screening test as well as for the visit to an ENT department. By multiplying the prevalences found by the different models with each other, a prevalence was calculated that accounted for increasing age and the timing of the successive hearing tests. Furthermore, 95% confidence intervals were calculated for this age-season-corrected prevalence. When all the children attended the hearing tests at 9, 10, 11 and 12 months of age and when the number of births was the same in all months, the overall prevalence was 4.8% [95% CI 4.3, 5.2]. The highest prevalence (8.0%) was found in April, and the lowest (1.5%) in October. Rates of bilateral OME during the late winter months were twice as high as those during the late summer.

Otitis Media with Effusion in Children: A Follow up Study in West Baghdad, Iraq

“…After the age of seven years old, the prevalence falls from 6.8% to 5% [15]; our results confirm data literature. In our study the distribution of the case in relation to season was different, in which the patients with OME were higher in the winter as opposed to the summer months which was consistent with other studies [11,23,24], this was probably due to increased frequency of upper respiratory tract infection during winter months. The study demonstrated that OME in West Baghdad is slightly more among boys (54.4%) than girls (45.6%); this is comparable with some studies which gave no significant difference in the prevalence of OME between both genders [25], even if the literature data are discordances because some studies demonstrate that males have a significantly higher proportion of OME (p<0.001) while others founds that the number of girls with OME significantly exceeds the number of boys with OME (<chi>2=7.384, P=0.0067) [17,26].…”

Risk factors for failing the hearing screen due to otitis media in Dutch infants

“…However, most infants who repeatedly fail a distraction hearing screen have conductive hearing loss due to OM [15, 47, 48]. A previous study [15] reported that 58% of the children failing the CAPAS and referred to an ENT department were diagnosed with bilateral OME and 70% with bilateral or unilateral OME, as confirmed by otoscopy and tympanometry at the ENT department.…”

Persistence of upper respiratory tract infections in a cohort followed from childhood to adulthood

“…13,14 However, as our study is a birth cohort study in which the participants were seen at scheduled follow-up visits, all seasons are represented so that information bias due to a seasonal effect will be minimal.…”