Distribution and Heritability of Recurrent Ear Infections

Abstract

The distribution of recurrent ear infections was obtained from a population-based sample of 2,750 pairs of Norwegian twins born between 1967 and 1974. The lifetime prevalence of self-reported recurrent ear infections was 8.9%, with a significant predominance of female cases. The mean age of onset was 4.2 years, with a gradual decrease in occurrence from 2 to 7 years of age. Among monozygotic pairs, the rate of tetrachoric correlation between co-twins was almost identical in males (0.73, SE 0.08) and females (0.74, SE 0.06), but among the dizygotic pairs the correlation was clearly higher in males (0.53, SE 0.12) than in females (0.20, SE 0.12). The value in the unlike-sexed dizygotic twins (0.25, SE 0.05) was intermediate to that of the like-sexed male and female dizygotic pairs. The relative contribution of genes and environment to variability in the predisposition to develop otitis media was estimated by means of structural equation modeling. Variation in liability to ear infections was mainly explained by additive genetic and dominance factors in females, for whom heritability was estimated at 74%. The remaining 26% of the variation in liability was explained by individual environmental factors. In males, 45% of the variation could be accounted for by genetic factors, 29% by common familial environment, and the remaining 26% by individual environmental effects.

Genetic Polymorphisms in Immunoresponse GenesTNFA,IL6,IL10, andTLR4Are Associated With Recurrent Acute Otitis Media

“…13,30,31 Girls were overrepresented in the group of children who suffered from Ն4 AOM episodes when compared with the children who had 2 to 3 AOM episodes. Children under the age of 4 were more likely to have had Ն4 AOM episodes in the previous year than older children.…”

“…9 The influence of genetically determined variations on otitis media can be illustrated by twin studies, which have shown a heritability of 57% for acute ear infections and 72% for chronic ear infections. [10][11][12][13][14] Correlation for recurrent otitis media is higher in monozygotic twins (65%-71%) compared with dizygotic twins (25%-34%). 15 Streptococcus pneumoniae is an important pathogen in otitis media and is involved in at least 20% to 40% of all cases.…”

A Genome-Wide Association Study of Chronic Otitis Media with Effusion and Recurrent Otitis Media Identifies a Novel Susceptibility Locus on Chromosome 2

“…The first family study of COME/ROM (Daly et al 1996) demonstrated that first-degree relatives (parents and siblings) of probands with COME/ROM had greater than expected rates of OM based on population rates. Subsequent twin and triplet studies confirmed the strong familial aggregation of COME and ROM, with heritability estimates of 0.64-0.74 in monozygotic twins and 0.20-0.53 in dizygotic twins (Kvaerner et al 1997;Casselbrant et al 1999;Rovers et al 2002;Kvestad et al 2004Kvestad et al , 2006. Two linkage studies for COME/ROM have been published to date (Daly et al 2004;Casselbrant et al 2009;Chen et al 2011); however, the loci identified in the two studies did not overlap.…”

Otitis Media in Greenland: studies on historical, epidemiological, microbiological, and immunological aspects

“…These factors probably function in a complicated interplay. In 2,750 pairs of Norwegian adult monozygotic and heterozygotic twins Kvaerner et al (1997a) estimated that the variation in liability for recurrent ear infections consisted of 74% heritability in females and 45% in males. URTI's have been claimed to be the most powerful risk factor associated with OM (Maynard 1969, Fleming et al 1987, Harsten et al 1989, Arola et al 1990, Alho et al 1990, Aniansson et al 1994, Daly et al 1999.…”