This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Despite overall decline in otitis media, risk factors unchanged
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
While the incidence and frequency of acute otitis media have decreased significantly following the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, risk factors – including day care attendance and family history of the condition – have remained the same.
“According to the AAP, over 5,000,000 acute otitis media cases occur annually in U.S. children, resulting in more than 10,000,000 annual antibiotic prescriptions and around 30,000,000 annual visits for medical care,” Ravinder Kaur, PhD, from the Center for Infectious Diseases and Immunology at Rochester General Hospital Research Institute, and colleagues wrote. “It is the most common condition treated with antibiotics, and increasing incidence of antibiotic resistance among the organisms responsible for the condition is a cause for concern.”
To examine the epidemiology of acute otitis media (AOM) and the otitis-prone condition within the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines 7 and 13 era, the researchers conducted a prospective study that included 615 children who were managed from 6 to 36 months of life between June 2006 and June 2016. Tympanocentesis and bacterial culture of middle ear fluid confirmed diagnoses of infection.
One or more episodes of AOM were experienced by 23% of infants by 1 year of age. This percentage increased to 60% by age 3, and 24% of children had three or more episodes. The highest incidence rate was observed between 6 and 12 months, with an increased risk of infection related to male sex, non-Hispanic white race, family history of recurrent AOM, day-care attendance and early occurrence of AOM.
For children who experienced three or more infections in a 6-month period or at least four infections within 1 year, stringently defined and typanocentesis-confirmed otitis proneness had observable risk factors such as male sex, day-care attendance, and family history of AOM. These children also experienced their first infections at younger ages. However, breast-feeding was a protective factor if done within 6 months of life.
“Our results are likely to be generalizable to other primary care pediatric practices serving a diverse population typically seen in a suburban practice setting,” Kaur and colleagues wrote. “Child populations that greatly differ from the demographic description of our study cohort may not have similar results.” — by Katherine Bortz
Disclosure: The researchers provide no relevant financial disclosures.
Collapse
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts