Otitis media, common in children, can result in middle ear structure alteration and hearing loss, and, hence, in language development deficiency. Physical anthropologists are qualified to do innovative research into the causes of this costly disease, which have not yet been delineated. The prevalence of otitis media appears related to age, sex, ethnicity, and environment. Investigation is warranted in areas such as the measurement of variability in eustachian tube, middle ear cleft, and mastoid process anatomy and physiology; the epidemiology and genetic mechanism of otitis media; and the microbiology and immunology as well as pathological studies of cranial variation as it relates to otitis media.Otitis media (OM), one of the most common diseases of childhood, is the problem most frequently seen by pediatricians in the US. Nearly 10% of all pediatric patients are those with OM, and if pediatricians dealt with children during their first year of life only, the estimate would be as high as 50% (Van Cauwenberge, 1985). Acute OM, the presence of fluid in the middle ear, may be accompanied by signs and symptoms including pain, hearing loss, irritability, fever, and malaise. The infection duration can vary from days to months and may result in alteration of middle ear structures, hearing loss, language development deficiency, and increased susceptibility to recurrence. Without the use of antibiotics, the sequelae of chronic OM often include labyrinthitis, meningitis, mastoiditis, tympanic membrane rupture, and cholesteatoma. The younger the age at which OM first occurs, the greater the risk of recurrences (Paradise, 1980). The condition may persist for weeks or months, even after the clinical signs of acute otitis media have already resolved (Shurin et al., 1979).Hearing loss, following from the presence of fluid and/or negative pressure in the middle ear, is a serious complication of OM, and many infected children spend prolonged periods during their first years of life with impaired or fluctuating conductive hearing losses. Chronic OM may also cause a sensorineural hearing lossoften irreversible (Bess, 1983). Katz (1978) even suggested (but never demonstrated) that the central deprivation caused by the peripheral conductive and/or sensorineural loss produces a form of auditory deprivation that can lead to anatomical and physiological changes in the brainstem and higher cortical areas.Of special concern are children who have OM from birth (Pestalozza, 1984) to age 3 years, a particularly common time of occurrence, as this period is critical for language acquisition (Lenneberg, 1967). Children with histories of OM during the first 3 years of life frequently have disturbances in auditory processing, an inconsistent auditory signal making the stream of speech difficult to segment. This difficulty creates confusion in the child's attempts to abstract word meanings and grammatical regularities (Berko-Gleason, 1983). Furthermore, the child's irritability, malaise, 0 1988 Alan R. Liss, Inc. [Vol. 31, 1988 and dec...
