Association between otitis media with effusion & body mass index in preschool-age children

Abstract

Background and objectives: Some clinical studies have suggested that otitis media with effusion may be associated with body mass index. The objective of this study is to evaluate the association between otitis media with effusion and body mass index in preschool-age children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 270 cases in preschool-age children. All children from the hospital outpatient department & kindergarten were examined by otoscope for the signs of otitis media with effusion and their body mass index was calculated based on their height and weight tympanometry was done for all of them. those with type A &B were included in our study. Results: A total of 270 children were enrolled in our study. Most of them 74% (201) did not have otitis media with effusion while only 69 kids had otitis media with effusion which was equal to 25.6% of the total participants there was a significant statistical association between study groups and BMI of children. More than half of the otitis media with effusion cases (53.7%) had normal body mass index in reverse to most (74.1%) of children without an ear infection. Around a quarter (23.2%) of otitis media with effusion participants were over-weight, while only 8.5% of control cases were over-weight. Obesity was more prevalent (13%) among otitis media with effusion cases than in normal children (4%). Conclusions: In this study, we concluded that there is a significant relationship between otitis media with effusion & body mass index in preschool-age children. The prevalence of obesity was higher among children with otitis media with effusion than those unaffected.