Air quality influenced amount of pediatric ear infections

The number of pediatric ear infections from 1997 to 2006 significantly decreased as air quality improved, according to U.S. researchers.

They examined 12-month data for the prevalence of frequent (three or more within 12 months) ear infections and respiratory allergy in a case-control study involving 126,060 children sampled from the National Health Interview Survey and used seizure prevalence as a control. After gathering data from the Environmental Protection Agency, the researchers used graphical and linear regression analyses to evaluate how these three conditions were affected by carbon monoxide, nitrous dioxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.

Initial 12-month prevalence for frequent ear infections was 6.6%, 11.7% for respiratory allergy and 0.7% for seizures. Results yielded statistically significant positive regression coefficients — ranging from 0.007 for particulate matter to 11.2 for sulfur dioxide — for each pollutant associated with ear infections. Regression coefficients were not statistically significant for respiratory allergies or seizures, the researchers noted.

“We believe these findings, which demonstrate a direct correlation between air quality and ear infections, have both medical and political significance,” Nina Shapiro, MD, director of pediatric otolaryngology at Mattel Children’s Hospital and associate professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine, both at UCLA, said in a press release.

“The results validate the benefits of the revised Clean Air Act of 1990, which gave the Environmental Protection Agency more authority to implement and enforce regulations reducing air-pollutant emissions. It also shows that the improvements may have direct benefit on health-quality measures.”

Bhattacharyya N.Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2010;142:242-246.