Risk factors of otitis media in children, Asser region : a case-control study

Abstract EN

Background: Otitis media with effusion is a global problem.

Otitis media, or middle ear inflammation, is a common pediatric condition that can result in hearing loss and delayed speech.

Otitis media affects almost two-thirds of all children According to various research, it affects between 15% and 40% of the population.

1According to the World Health Organization, otitis media causes hearing loss in approximately 42 million children over the age of three.

Before entering the school system, over 90% of youngsters suffer from this disease.

Method: After collection of data, data was coded and entered in the SPSS ver.20 software for analyses descriptive statistics (mean standard deviation, frequencies and percentages were computed), to measure the significance differences chi-square test was used at 5% level of significance, regression analysis was also carried out to determine the significant risk factors.

In this cross - sectional study data was collected by the purposely constructed questionnaire.

Questionnaire composed of the demographic items and items related to the OM diseases.

Questionnaire was constructed after the series of discussions between the panel of experts this panel composed of from subject specialist, researcher, and language expert.

Cronbach alpha of the questionnaire was calculated.

Results: Two hundred five patients have bilateral OME, and only 14 patients have unilateral OME.

(Figure 2).

All patients were assessed for eligibility for tympanostomy tube placement (myringotomy), of which 167 (76.3%) patients were eligible for bilateral grommets and 52 (23.7%) for unilateral tube placement.

(Figure 3) The prevalence rate of OME in our study was 38.3% (219/572).

The age ranged from 2 to 12 years (mean (SD) = 8.5± 12.8 years).

Conclusion: In conclusion we have observed that OME is a threat of our young youth and children, we have to do some relevant actions to overcome and to reduce the prevalence of OM diseases.