Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg.
2017 Oct;60(10):497-503. 10.3342/kjorl-hns.2017.00227.
Is Pediatric Otitis Media Correlated with an Increased Risk of Bronchial Asthma?: An II-Year Nationwide Population-Based Study
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Korea. choihyunseung@gmail.com
- 2Research and Analysis Team, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Korea.
- KMID: 2393813
- DOI: http://doi.org/10.3342/kjorl-hns.2017.00227
Abstract
- BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Pediatric otitis media is closely related to upper respiratory illness and is one of the most common causes of hospital visiting and antibiotic prescription. Although there are many studies of asthma with other upper respiratory tract infections, few studies have investigated the relationship between asthma and otitis media. This study estimated whether pediatric otitis media is associated with the risk of asthma using the Korean National Health Insurance Service National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC 2002-2013) data.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
In using the NHIS-NSC 2002-2013 data, children diagnosed as otitis media or bronchial asthma in 2002 were excluded from children from 1 to 8 years old in 2003. The patients who were diagnosed and treated as otitis media (n=8506) and the comparison group (n=65886) were enrolled in 2003. During a 10-year follow-up period until December 2013, the incidence of asthma between two groups was analyzed and the result was adjusted for the impact of comorbidities such as atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis with multivariate linear regression analyses.
RESULTS
In 2003, 20.88% of first-year-old children were treated with otitis media. The prevalence of otitis media was maintained at 15% until age 4 and decreased rapidly after 5 years of age. Asthma incidence was reported higher in patients with otitis media compared to the comparison group, with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.196 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.127-1.269] followed by patients with atopic dermatitis [hazard ratio (HR) 1.261, 95% CI 1.196-1.33], allergic rhinitis (HR 1.473, 95% CI 1.409-1.54).
CONCLUSION
Pediatric otitis media appeared to be associated with an increased risk of developing bronchial asthma after adjusting for other risk factors.
