Absent otoacoustic emissions predict otitis media in young Aboriginal children: A birth cohort study in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children in an arid zone of Western Australia

Abstract

Background: Otitis media (OM) is the most common paediatric illness for which antibiotics are prescribed. In Australian Aboriginal children OM is frequently asymptomatic and starts at a younger age, is more common and more likely to result in hearing loss than in non-Aboriginal children. Absent transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) may predict subsequent risk of OM.

Sweep frequency impedance measures in Australian Aboriginal and Caucasian neonates

“…These authors also noted that Aboriginal infants who failed TEOAEs at age 1-2 months were 2.6 times more likely to develop OM subsequently than those who passed. However, such prediction was not demonstrated in Caucasian infants with a failed TEOAE outcome at age 1-2 months [7].…”

“…In another longitudinal study, Lehmann et al [7] monitored middle ear function in 100 Aboriginal and 180 Caucasian infants from birth to two years of age using transient evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) test, 226-Hz tympanometry and otoscopic examinations by an otolaryngologist. They found that TEOAEs were present in 90% (46/51) of Aboriginal and 99% (120/121) of Caucasian neonates aged less than one month.…”

Otitis media in Indigenous Australian children: review of epidemiology and risk factors

“…populations. 7,12,14 The literature shows a significantly higher prevalence of tympanic membrane perforation in Indigenous populations than other cohorts. 19,[21][22][23] Perforation rates are also much higher in Indigenous children from remote versus urban communities.…”

Diversity of Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae Strains Colonizing Australian Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Children

“…Aboriginal children in the KOMRP had higher NTHI carriage rates than non-Aboriginal children (42.0% versus 11.1%) in the first 2 years of life. Rates of OM were highest for Aboriginal children, and the peak prevalence of OM occurred earlier with 70% experiencing OM between 5 and 9 months of age compared with 40% of non-Aboriginal children experiencing OM between 10 and 14 months of age (19). By age 2 months, H. influenzae was isolated at least once from 27% of Aboriginal children compared with 6% of non-Aboriginal children (18).…”

“…We have previously described nasopharyngeal colonization (18) and OM (19,20) in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children living in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder area of the Goldfields in Western Australia as part a prospective longitudinal cohort study known as the Kalgoorlie Otitis Media Research Project (KOMRP) (21). Aboriginal children in the KOMRP had higher NTHI carriage rates than non-Aboriginal children (42.0% versus 11.1%) in the first 2 years of life.…”